[MSN] Weather vanes' value make them hot items for thieves

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 Weather vanes' value make them hot items for thieves

By MIKE LYONS

Sunday, January 28, 2007

I have often told aspiring meteorologists that to understand the weather in
Florida you need to know which way the wind is blowing.

Winds from the southeast (common through summer and fall months) usually
mean warm temperatures and a chance of rain. A northerly wind component
(likely during the winter months) suggests it's time to close the windows
and put on a jacket because cooler, drier air probably is on the way.

For hundreds of years, the easiest way to determine which way the wind is
blowing is to look at a weather vane. Mounted atop church steeples, on the
masts of large ships or picture-postcard red barns in New England, the
weather vane gave local residents their first indication of a change in the
weather.

With today's whiz-bang computers and satellite technology, weather vanes
have become less a meteorological tool and more prized pieces of American
folk art. Auction houses routinely sell antique weather vanes for thousands
of dollars. A weather vane from a Rhode Island train station recently sold
for $1.2 million.

Maybe that explains why weather vanes are disappearing across New England.

Police in Waterville, Vt., believe that someone scaled Elaine and Dennis
Thomas' barn, stole an antique weather vane and replaced it with a replica.
The weather vane was the image of Black Hawk, a famous Morgan horse breed
developed in Vermont two centuries ago that the couple raise.

My husband said he thought the tail wasn't right and then my daughter said
something was wrong with the tail," Elaine said. "I looked up, and I
screamed 'That's not our horse!' "

Still, the copy the thieves placed on the roof was a very close replica.
Police report the burglars were so meticulous they even punched a small hole
in the duplicate weather vane to mimic a bullet hole in the original vane.

The Thomases' missing weather vane is among more than 20 that have been
stolen in recent years in New England. In each case, the thieves steal the
antique weather vane and replace it with a replica.

"Those are just the reported cases," Sgt. John Flannigan, a spokesman for
the Vermont State Police told the Portsmouth, N.H., Herald. "I just wonder
how many of these may have occurred and may not have been reported to the
authorities. They may not even know it."

Based upon a similar crime spree in the 1980s, police believe the weather
vanes may be taken to New York, California and Florida to be sold. Police
say a weather vane valued at $10,000 could be obtained for $3,000, if the
thieves are lucky.

Sometimes the stolen weather vane turns up for sale in antique magazines,
but dealers are leery about buying weather vanes they believe may be stolen.
"It's a pretty tight network and people are aware of what's been stolen,"
Jean Burks, senior curator of the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, N.H., told
the Portsmouth newspaper. "It's not going to go far."

Still, for the Thomases and other New England families, the loss of their
weathe vane hurts. "I just wish he'd taken the SUV, or a bicycle or a
canoe," Elaine Thomas said. "Things we could replace."

Mike Lyons is chief weather specialist at WPBF-TV.