[CPProt.net] Huge fiberglass boot stolen from yard

[CulPropProtNet/MusSecNetwork]

Huge fiberglass boot stolen from yard

Associated Press


CASPER, Wyo. - Police are looking for whoever swiped an 8-foot, 150-pound,
fiberglass boot from the front yard of an elementary school principal.

Leslie Madden, principal of Willard Elementary, said she noticed the huge,
colorful boot was missing when she backed her car out of her driveway
Saturday morning.

"I'm just devastated," she said.

The boot was one of 30 that were decorated by Cheyenne-area artists and sold
to raise money for the Cheyenne Depot Museum Foundation during Frontier Days
last year.

Recalling how difficult it was to haul the boot from Cheyenne in a horse
trailer, then bolt it in a box made of railroad ties, she figures that at
least three people were involved in the theft.

Natrona County Sheriff's deputies who investigated found boot tracks -
normal-sized ones - and tire tracks at the scene. "It was bolted down so
well, including steel braces inside the boot," she recalled. "I thought it
was secure."

Artist Michelle McDonald said it took her and two other artists, Holly
Bishop and Debbie Witte, a couple months to complete the boot, which is
entitled "Clownin' Around." The boot has a colorful rodeo clown motif.

"That's what makes me so mad," she said. "All that work and somebody
probably threw it in the back of a truck and dinged it up."

Bishop said it took all three of them to move the boot around while they
were working on it in Witte's garage.

Madden wondered what the thieves have planned for the boot. "They would have
to have a big garage to hide it," she said. "And if anyone tries to display
it in Natrona County, someone is going to recognize it."

Madden said her neighbors on Zero Road were as sad as she was to learn about
the boot's disappearance. "They all love the boot," she said. "It was just a
special thing for all of us."


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Information from: Star-Tribune, http://www.casperstartribune.net