Jul 22, 2008 9:00 am US/Eastern
Stolen Cherry Hill Statue Found In Pieces
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (CBS 3) ―
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Camden County Police Department/CBS
Acting on a tip from a confidential source, the Cherry Hill Police department made an arrest in the case of the stolen horse statue and on Monday, they made several more arrests and recovered remains of the statue from a salvage yard.
Over the weekend, authorities arrested Ian MacDonald, 33, of Audubon, N.J. and charged him with theft and conspiracy. On Monday, police made more arrests and took into custody Brian McMullen, 33, of Sicklerville, John Silcox, 36, of Mt. Ephraim, and Joseph Lesniak, 32, of Pennsauken.
According to police, who recovered the "Indian Head" portion of the statue, MacDonald had sold most of the metal parts for scrap at a salvage yard in Camden, N.J.
Police went to the scrap yard Monday and recovered more than 1,000 pounds of the statue's remains.
The sculpture, titled "Athletes of Race: Primitive," was reported missing earlier this week. Its partner, "Athletes of Race: Modern," is still at the site.
From the mid 1980s until the Garden State Park was demolished in 2004, the two sculptures stood outside the track's grandstand.
"I was shocked," said Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt. "I couldn't imagine anybody picking up a more than a ton horse and carting it off!"
Police do not know exactly when the sculpture was stolen; it could have been weeks ago.
Tracks from a nearby front end loader lead to the sculpture's base.
"We theorize that someone got into the front end loader, knocked or cracked the statue off its concrete base, picked it up in the bucket and took it out of Garden State Park," said Detective Sergeant Joe Vitarelli.
Although the statue is valued at $500,000, says Vitarell, it could be worth even more because the pair was commissioned specifically for Garden State Park.
They were sculpted by Thomas Schomberg, of Colorado. Schomberg also sculpted Philadelphia's famed "Rocky" statue.
"It has much greater value. Forget about the monetary value; it has a lot of sentimental significance to the township," said Mayor Platt.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for the suspects on July 30, 2008 in the Camden County Superior Court.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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