[MSN] Stolen bust of George Brett found on Missouri roadside

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Stolen bust of George Brett found on Missouri roadside
Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A bronze bust of former Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett was found in a roadside box Friday after being stolen earlier this week from the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, officials said.

A resident found the bust in a box left in a ditch near the Lake of the Ozarks community of Camdenton and called Camden County sheriff's deputies, the sheriff's office said in a news release. Camdenton is about 80 miles northeast of Springfield, where the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is located.

The box was closed with duct tape and labeled "Please return to the police, stolen property," the Camden County sheriff's office said.

The bust, valued at $10,000 to $15,000, disappeared Monday or Tuesday night from outside the Springfield museum, where it was part of a "legends walkway" with about 15 other busts of Missouri athletes.

"We are very pleased to be getting it back," Hall of Fame operations director Marty Willadsen said Friday.

Willadsen said the bust may have been stolen by a prankster or to sell for scrap metal. The thief may have been scared into abandoning the bust after media reports of the theft, he said.

Brett, who had 3,154 hits and batted .305 in a 21-year career with Kansas City, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

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