[MSN] Corvallis police recovered a statue stolen in June from Delta Chi fraternity at Oregon State University and arrested a suspect in the theft on Tuesay.

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Stolen fraternity statue recovered

Delta Chi's bronze Vulcun found after reward offer

By Gwyneth Gibby


Gazette-Times reporter

 
Corvallis police recovered a statue stolen in June from Delta Chi fraternity
at Oregon State University and arrested a suspect in the theft on Tuesay.

The 3-foot-tall bronze statue of the Roman god Vulcan was stolen from Delta
Chi the night of June 10, and has been estimated to be worth as much as
$100,000.

Corvallis police received a phone call Tuesday, after a newspaper article
announced the fraternity's insurance company was offering a $5,000 reward
for the statue's safe return, or for information leading to the arrest and
successful prosecution of the thief.

According to police, the person who called was someone who had knowledge of
who had taken the statue and where it was being kept. Acting on information
from the phone tip, detectives went to a private residence in the 400 block
of Northwest 10th Street, and recovered the statue, which was hidden in the
basement.

Police arrested Marcus Annis, 20, who lived in the house, and charged him
with first-degree burglary, a Class A felony, and aggravated theft in the
first degree, a Class B felony. The theft charge was aggravated because the
value of the statue is estimated to be more than $10,000.

Police have not released the name of the person who called with the tip.
They continue to investigate and there may be more arrests in the future.

According to a police report, the statue was stolen sometime around 2:30
a.m. June 10. A fraternity member woke to the sound of someone opening the
door to the sleeping porch and calling out "Hey guys!" When he went to check
who it was, he found no one. But the statue was gone and a ground-floor
window was standing open.

Detectives confirmed the statue was heavy, weighing between 60 and 80
pounds. But it was not so heavy that one person would have required help to
commit the theft.

The statue was given to the house in 1926, when Charles Rosenkrans, a recent
graduate and member of Delta Chi, was killed in an accident. His family
donated the statue of Vulcan, god of fire and metal working, to the house
where it has been on display ever since.

Police had circulated photographs of the statue to artist and art dealers in
order to more accurately establish the value of the piece. One estimate was
of the worth was as much as $100,000, but the artist who created the work
remains a mystery. Now that the statue has been recovered, the fraternity
may be able to solve that puzzle.

Anyone with information relating to the June 10 burglary of Delta Chi is
asked to contact Detective James Poole at 766-6924

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