HEFTY HEIST OF STATUE
Thieves steal 300-pound dragon from city B&B
A four-foot dragon is no longer guarding a Cathedral area bed and breakfast.
Sometime overnight Wednesday, the statue was stolen from its place on top of the arbour at the gate of Dragon’s Nest B&B.
It was there Wednesday at 9:30 p.m., when a guest checked in. At 6 a.m. Thursday morning, Rick Urbanski noticed it was gone.
“It was a very well-planned, thought-out caper. It’s not like it was a couple of teenagers who ran up there and pushed it over and caught it,” said Urbanski, who coowns the Dragon’s Nest with his wife, Denise.
“It was bolted down; it weighs 300 pounds,” Urbanski added. “It took me and three guys with a ramp to slide it and pull it up to the base where it was sitting. So it’s almost like they needed one of those lift trucks or something.”
Normally a light sleeper, Urbanski didn’t hear the crime take place. There is little evidence of the theft, aside from a damaged flower box near the gate — a board knocked off and flowers trampled, as though someone had stood on it.
“It’s like God came down with his hand, picked it up and flew away with it,” said Urbanski.
The couple purchased the dragon in 2009 from the now-defunct Global Liquidators. Its miniature has a place in their dining room.
In 2010, they hired artist Aileen Dewhurst to paint the dragon.
Urbanski estimates its worth at $10,000.
A fixture in view of any of their front windows, the dragon was lit with motion-sensor floodlights.
Urbanski said he canvassed the neighbourhood for surveillance cameras, to no avail.
He has displayed posters at area businesses, advertising a $1,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the dragon’s whereabouts.
Urbanski filed a police report on Thursday, but hadn’t heard from investigators as of Friday afternoon.
As for a suspect, he’s at a loss. “There’s people all the time walking by taking pictures of it, so now I’m suspicious of everyone: Were they canvassing the place with that in mind?” he wondered.
The dragon is a notable sight in the area. Urbanski said he has already heard from a few local residents who’ve asked about the missing dragon.
Urbanski said there has been little crime at 2200 Angus St. since 2000, when he and Denise moved in. They opened the B&B in 2004.
He has had two bikes and one car stolen in the past 17 years.
“The neighbourhood has been great. I always brag to my guests, ‘Yeah, you can park on the street if you want,’ ” said Urbanski.
He said he isn’t worried about charges being laid as long as someone turns in the dragon.
“I just want the dragon back,” said Urbanski. “We’d take it back and forgive.”
If that happens, he plans to restore the dragon to its rightful place.
It weighs 300 pounds. It took me and three guys with a ramp to slide it and pull it up to the base where it was sitting.