Someone found it just a little suspicious when they spotted a man walking along Bruce Street with a bicycle, recycling bin and a catalytic converter at 11:30 p.m. on a winter night.
When city police responded to the call and checked the area on Jan. 4, 2023, they found Donald Jones heading west along the railway tracks.
He was carrying the entire exhaust system from a vehicle — and couldn't provide the officers with a "rational reason" why he had it, a judge heard Tuesday.
It appeared to have recently been removed from a vehicle because there still was road salt on it, prosecutor Adrianna Mucciarelli said.
Jones said he received the catalytic converter from a man and had planned to hide it in the bush in hopes of getting some money for it.
He pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property, plus four other offences, including two counts of failing to attend court and a single count of breaching probation
The 28-year-old also was convicted of breaching an undertaking for missing a Jan. 15, 2023 fingerprint date.
Mucciarelli and the defence told Ontario Court Justice John Condon they jointly were proposing a 60-day jail sentence.
The accused has a criminal record that starts in 2019 and includes break and enter, theft and fraud, the assistant Crown attorney said.
She described his recent offences as "blatant breaches of court orders."
Jones was placed on a two-year probation order in February 2022, met twice with his probation officer and never reported after that.
Lawyer Ken Walker said his client is a Garden River First Nation member whose grandparents attended residential school, but the defence wasn't requesting preparation of a Gladue report for sentencing.
He also told the judge that although there were triable issues, Jones "has chosen to put this behind him."
When he imposed the 60-day sentence, Condon said he was taking into consideration the accused's guilty pleas (a sign of remorse), his criminal record for similar conduct and Gladue factors.
He gave Jones an enhanced of credit of 1.5 days for each day he has spent in pre-sentence custody, leaving him with a further 10 days behind bars.