Heartless thieves have stolen a Haslingden sculpture created by children from a special school. The 7ft statue known as “The Workers” was created by pupils at Tor View Community Special School in Haslingden, North West England. The three “match stick” people were made from tubular steel pieces leading many to believe the figures could be on there way to a scrap metal yard. This is the second time the sculpture has been targeted by thieves since it was erected 2006.

UPDATE :  Well it seems our heartless thieves aren’t heartless at all. The stolen sculpture has not only been returned by the guilty thieves but they left a fifty pound note attached to a letter. The letter read : “We’re sorry. We didn’t know the children made this and we are very sorry for stealing drunken. I hope the attached £50 will cover the cost to re-weld him on. Don’t worry we’ve looked after him.”

A wooden statue of the goddess Kannon was stolen from a local temple last month only to find itself being passed around like a hot sweet potato. The “Senju Kannon” (Thousand-armed Kannon) statue, which was made during the Muromachi Period (1336-1573), was quite happily sitting in the Hozoji Temple’s Kannon hall in Shimada, Japan, when a shifty thief nicked it and swapped it for an inferior one. Somehow the Kannon statue ended up in a flea market in the nearby city of Fujieda where a shrewd art dealer spotted it and grabbed the bargain. Buying it for 7000 yen the dealer then sold it at auction for 500,000 (see, told you he was shrewd).From there it was again on-sold to a dealer in the Kansai district. Eventually a collector bought it, only to discover it was on a stolen list. He did the right thing and contacted the Shizuoka Prefectural Police. Investigators believe the original seller is the culprit. There have been three similar thefts in recent months.

Alas, it isn’t Ace but the the Ventura Police Department on the case when a missing Bee sculpture was stolen from a fair at the Ventura County Fairground on the 15th August, 2008. The 20 inch bronze sculpted by Chris Provenzano simply vanished ( could it be another case of Colony Collapse Disorder?).The $4,000 bronze and glass bee was yanked off its limestone base.

Bee Sculpture Update : Well, alrighty then, the bee sculpture has been found and will be returned to the artist shortly. A tearful woman rang the fair to say she had it was in the trunk of her car.Evidently the excuse was a group of people were mucking around with it and “accidentally took it home with them” (I think she was telling a Ripley’s !).

A stolen bronze statue by sculptor J. Steward Johnson Jr.was recovered by Vancouver police. The popular bronze was stolen in June from Queen Elizabeth Park, with fears it was going to end up as scrap metal. Police had pre-empted that the thief/thieves would be heading for the scrap metal yards and their hunch eventually paid off. A woman is now being question after being caught on CCTV, but no charges have been laid…stay tuned. The statue, by the way, was worth about $5,000 as scrap metal.

A 6ft, 200lb, mud caked fiberglass Elvis has been returned to the Cool and Eclectic Furniture and Fashions store, by two teenagers who found it in a wooded area of Alanton, Virginia Beach. The King (or what was left of him) was in three pieces. Those involved in the theft had cut Elvis at the ankles and broken off an arm. The statue had been missing since June. The store owner, Mr Estes, had a life size Betty Boop stolen a few years back,body was found but the head was never recovered.

Dinopig, the life size plastic pig sculpture, has been found. The pig was part of a public art project in Bath, England. Dinopig is one of 100 swine statues found throughout Bath City and the second pig to be stolen in the past four weeks. The pigs are part of an exhibition telling the 3,000 year old legend of how King Bladud founded Bath while walking his pet pigs. The pig, which was worth around 750 pounds, was found near a children’s playground. The police are hoping to catch the swines responsible for Dinopigs disappearance!

A bronze statue of a girl holding an ice cream cone has and a balloon has been found at a San Gabriel Valley scrap yard. The $25,000 statue was nicked from a real estate company in July. Unfortunately the balloon was missing from the statue and is believed to have been already smelted. The culprit was trying to sell the statue for $180. Was it worth the trouble? Maybe he would have been better off trying to sell it as a garden ornament!

I sure hope this ain’t a Cowparade Cow, but I have just been informed that a decapitated cow statue has been found dumped in Cheyenne Lane, Fort Worth, Texas. No word yet if it is the Southlake cow but all indications, so far, are suggesting it is. The Southlake cow was worth about $1000, but  now, without it’s head, it may be deemed worthless. When will the world stop messing with the CowParade cows (haven’t they been through enough).

The 400 pound bronze statue that once stood outside the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood has been found on a farm. Three years after the thieves cut the bolts of the Ammunition Plant worker statue which attached it to its base it was found lying in a paddock. The statue was originally erected in 2001 and then vanished in July 2005.The general consensus was that the statue had been melted down for money.
The statue was erected in honor of the  48 men who were killed and the 46 workers injured when an explosion ripped through the plant on the 5th of June, 1942 (during World War II). Problem now seems to be what to do with it. A $30,000 replacement statue now stands in its place!