[MSN] EDMOND - Police recovered a stolen 400-pound statue of a Girl Scout in a city park Monday night across town from its original location.

[MSN]

Police find stolen statue
Lisa Shearer
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND - Police recovered a stolen 400-pound statue of a Girl Scout in a
city park Monday night across town from its original location.

After an anonymous tip, Edmond Police arrested 18-year-old Chad Alexander
Griffin of Edmond on a complaint of concealing stolen property, said Glynda
Chu, Edmond Police spokeswoman, this morning. He remains in the Oklahoma
County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

Police arrested Griffin about midnight Monday at the intersection of West
Edmond Road and Fretz. In an e-mailed statement, Chu said the suspect told
police where the statue could be found in Hafer Park.

Susan Bohl, a Girl Scout troop leader and service unit director for Edmond
Girl Scouts, said this morning the incident appears to be "a high school
spring break prank."

"We are thrilled," Bohl said about the recovery of the $12,000 bronze
statue.

The statue was dedicated Nov. 3 in Mitch Park by Girl Scouts who came from
across the state as part of an Oklahoma centennial event that also
celebrated scouting. It was reported stolen sometime between Thursday
evening and Friday morning.

"She's fully intact and there was no damage done," Bohl said, noting the
statue was found leaning against a tree overlooking the Hafer Park pond.

Bohl said it was difficult for her to fathom how the teen could have moved
the statue by himself.

"When we unloaded it from the truck to put on the base, it took three big
guys to move it," she said.

The 4.5-foot tall statue stands on a 6-inch base and was sculpted by
Oklahoma artist Shan Gray, who also created the Shannon Miller sculpture in
Shannon Miller Park in Edmond. Since it was for the state's centennial, the
Girl Scouts wanted an Oklahoma artist, according to a press release.

The Crucible Foundry in Norman that did the bronze speculated it was stolen
for the value of the metal - which is about $1,000.

In hopes of its return, the Girl Scouts-Western Oklahoma Inc. offered a
$1,000 reward. Girl Scouts from Edmond, Deer Creek and Guthrie spent more
than nine months raising funds to pay for the statue, which also received
funding from the city's Visual Arts Commission.

"We were all just so disappointed," Bohl said. "It was just heart-wrenching
because we had put so much energy and time plus all the effort that went
into planning the event."

The City of Edmond Parks and Recreation Department has possession of the
statue, Chu said.

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