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Letter to the editor

400-pound statue of kids left no trail

Police ask for tips and call scrap metal dealers.

By RITA FARLOW, Times Staff Writer
Published November 21, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Special to the Times] The bronze statue, I Love My Country, was stolen sometime over the weekend, police said. It was bolted to a concrete pad and surrounded by a flower bed in Largo Central Park.

LARGO - Who would steal a 400-pound bronze statue of two kids hoisting an American flag?

And why?

Is it gracing someone's lawn? Is it on its way to a scrap metal operation?

And how the heck did the thieves manage to lug it from a public park at one of Florida's busiest intersections?

Largo police want answers to all those questions as they investigate the disappearance of a cast bronze statue, 6 feet tall, that has been in Largo Central Park for one year.

So far, it's a mystery.

No witnesses have come forward. And police calls to local scrap metal dealers haven't turned up any leads, Largo police Detective Paul Amodeo said Tuesday.

"If you're going to steal metal, it's not one of the more valuable metals," Amodeo said.

Bronze scrap can fetch about $1.55 a pound, said Bill Thirsk, of Commercial Metals Recycling in Tampa.

"Bronze, brass ... it's all copper-based alloys with different amounts of lead, tin or zinc in it. Bronze is generally high-quality brass," Thirsk said.

The statue, titled I Love My Country, was stolen sometime over the weekend, police said. It was bolted to a concrete pad and surrounded by a flower bed that the thieves trampled. The bandits either pried out the bolts or screwed them loose.

The bronze statue was installed at the James S. Miles and Richard A. Leandri Military Court of Honor on the north side of the park, just in time for last year's Veterans Day celebration, said Lara Khoury, senior management analyst for the city's Recreation, Parks and Arts Department.

Largo bought the statue for $3,900 last fall from the Rose Garden of Dania Beach, a family-operated company that makes bronze sculptures and fountains.

"That piece is heavy as it is," said Rose Garden vice president Austin Rose. "And to have it bolted in, somebody must have really wanted it."

But who?

And for what?

If you can help solve the mystery, call Detective Paul Amodeo at Largo Police Department at 587-6730 or 587-6728.

[Last modified November 20, 2007, 21:52:39]