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.

The bust of famed surfer George Freeth is gone. Dude, took everything except the big cement base. So who was George Freeth? Freeth braved the waves of California in the early 1900’s to become a surfing legend. Prior to him, people were pretty much too scared to go beyond the breakers. Now look at them ! The bust was created by sculptor Terry O’Donnell some 31 years ago and placed on the Redondo Beach pier.The bust was pretty much ignored until recently, when news stories began emerging about the dude that was credited with bringing surfing to California . Imagine the fate of the Beach Boys without him ! Freeth died in 1919,at the age of 36, during the influenza pandemic. Police suspect that the increased interest in Freeth has led to a souvenir hunter taking his bust.

UPDATE : Body Glove owner has offered a $5,000 reward for the return of the Freeth bust.