‘Celebrity’ statue missing

A ‘celebrity’ is missing from Horsham’s west.

Billy, a ceramic goat statue standing in the front yard of Peter and Wendy Butler’s house, went missing from his home around New Year’s Day.

Mr Butler said Billy was a much-loved feature for both his owners, and their neighbours who often walked past to pat the statue or say hello.

He said he and Mrs Butler were disappointed to see Billy go missing. “He’s a real icon,” he said. “One of our neighbour’s daughters used to always come over with her father and see Billy the Goat and pat him.

“And one of our friends further down the street, when she gets a visit from a lady out of town, they would always come this way to see Billy.

“Some people have also told taxi drivers, ‘oh, it’s whatever house is past the goat’.”

The Butlers said they reported the missing item to police, but were yet to locate it.

They said this was the second time Billy had gone missing – the first time he was returned anonymously in the night, albeit severely damaged.

They said as a result, they had decided to liquid nail Billy to a large rock in the hope it would prevent the same thing happening again.

“And then he wandered off again on us,” Mr Butler said.

“We’re just really disappointed. It’s not the monetary value so much as it is that it’s so life-like.

“It didn’t matter where you stood, he seemed to be always looking at you.

“Last time when he went missing, we did try to look around and see if we could get something similar, but none were as life-like as Billy. So, yeah, I hope he wanders back before too much longer.”

Mrs Butler said if Billy happened to return home, however, he would have to be moved somewhere else in the yard.

“We’d be very happy to have him back,” she said.

“But I’ve decided he’s not going back out the front if he does.”