Thieves swipe solid-gold eagle statue in B.C.

THIEVES ABSCOND WITH DIAMOND-ENCRUSTED SOLID-GOLD BIRD AT CENTRE OF CANCER FUNDRAISER

B.C. sculptor Kevin Peters turned on the TV news Monday at noon and was startled to see an image of a one-of-a-kind eagle statue he had crafted several years ago. At that moment, the phone rang. Ron Shore, the businessman who commissioned the piece of art, was on the other end. He wasn’t his usual self. He sounded defeated. “I lost the eagle,” Peters recalled him saying. Peters learned that Shore had been violently robbed of the solid-gold statue late Sunday night in a residential neighbourhood in Ladner, a suburb south of Vancouver.

“That took a minute to sink in,” he said.

Official details of how the robbery went down remain murky.

There have been conflicting accounts in the media and Shore was unwilling Tuesday to reconcile them, saying he had received instructions from Delta, B.C., police not to comment on certain details.

Andreas Basson, pastor at the Pneuma Church in Ladner, said the incident happened following a concert at the church. A mother and daughter witnessed two men beating Shore and one ran away with his backpack. As the assailants drove away, Shore tried to cling on to the vehicle.

“The daughter started crying because of what they saw,” he said Tuesday.

This was no ordinary eagle.

Valued at more than $5 million, the statue is encrusted with more than 700 diamonds and features the Atocha Star — a 400-year-old, square-cut emerald recovered from a shipwreck.

“If it moves, it catches light and catches your eye,” said Peters, who devoted a year to the project and went through three or four practice pieces.

Shore, who operates a telecommunications company, had commissioned the project as part of a campaign to raise money for breast cancer research. After his sister-in-law died from breast cancer and a car accident almost killed him, he said he couldn’t help but ponder: “What have I really done with my life?”

Shore said he mortgaged his house and used inheritance money and credit cards to finance the statue.

His hope was that proceeds from the sale of the golden eagle could be put toward an annual breast cancer benefit concert.

“With the loss of this eagle, it really crushes my ability to fulfil my vision,” he said.

He would not say whether the statue was insured.

It had been on display at Art! Vancouver, a four-day exhibition in the city’s downtown that concluded on Sunday.

Later that evening, it was stolen as it was being loaded into a vehicle and destined for safe keeping in a vault, he said.

“I struggled as hard as I could, yet was unable to prevent the robbery,” he said through police on Monday.

In an interview with Postmedia on Monday, Shore said there was one assailant.

On Tuesday he told the National Post there was “at least one” assailant. He wouldn’t confirm whether he had attended a church event that night. Nor would he say if weapons were used.

Shore said he suffered injuries during the robbery and had to be taken to hospital. He was released the next morning.

“I’m extremely sore,” he said.

Peters said “they beat him up pretty bad.”

Shore also confirmed that, at the time of the attack, he was accompanied by a “designated security person.”

CTV reported the eagle was taken from a backpack Shore had been wearing.

IT REALLY CRUSHES MY ABILITY TO FULFIL MY VISION.

One churchgoer told CTV he saw Shore wearing the backpack and was aware of what was in it.

Shore would not confirm whether he had been carrying the eagle in a backpack.

Peters said he had built a wooden case for the eagle.

Delta Police confirmed Tuesday they had asked Shore not to say anything more about the circumstances of the robbery.

Acting Sgt. Sarah Swallow said investigators were interviewing witnesses and collecting surveillance footage from the area.

This is not the first time the eagle has apparently been targeted. In a 2010 interview, Shore told the Vancouver Sun that RCMP accompanied him and the eagle to an event because of concerns organized crime elements might be looking to steal it.

Peters said a few people had expressed interest in the eagle but backed out because of security concerns.

Shore said his No. 1 priority is getting the statue back.

But Peters worries that the statue may have left the country — or worse.

“I’d hate to think it’d be melted down,” he said. “That’s my fear.”