[MSN] BEREA - A 150- to 200-pound piece of history was stolen Monday from the city park, and Berea police have the film footage as proof.

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Video catches statue thefts

Ronica Shannon
Register News Writer

BEREA - A 150- to 200-pound piece of history was stolen Monday from the city
park, and Berea police have the film footage as proof.

Two males can be seen on a surveillance tape at 1:19 a.m. as they remove the
statue of a little girl from the bronze John G. Fee memorial at the corner
of Chestnut and Boone streets.

The video recorder that shows the suspects is located on the side of the
People's Bank main office on Chestnut Street.

"We thought we'd take a shot in the dark and ask them, and we got lucky,"
said Berea Police Capt. Ken Clark. "We were fortunate that the security
camera covered in that area. We have fairly decent pictures and we're hoping
that someone will recognize them and need $500 for Christmas."

The Berea City Council voted to give a $500 reward for the return of the
statue and identification of the two suspects who took the statue.

The video shows the suspects walking up to the statue and breaking it free
from its anchor, but it does not show how they removed it, Clark said.

"We don't have them walking off with it, but because of the location and the
weight of the statue, we feel that they must have had a vehicle parked close
by," he said.

Much attention recently has been placed on frequent copper thefts, and the
suspects may not have gotten what they were after.

"To an untrained eye, somebody might have thought that perhaps they were
getting copper," Clark said. "Most of the time, thieves aren't rocket
scientists. We don't catch them because we are, but just because they're
dumber than us."

The statue was a part of a group of statues placed in honor of Berea's
founder John G. Fee. The statues include three students (one girl and two
boys), Fee and a female teacher. 

The statues were unveiled at a special ceremony June 8.

Fee (1816-1901) was born in Bracken County to middle-class farmers and
slaveholders. After receiving an education at both Augusta College in
Bracken County and Miami University of Ohio, he studied at Lane Theological
Seminary in 1842 and later became a minister.

The statues were donated to the city by Berea College.

In 1854, with the help of Cassius Marcelus Clay, Fee founded the town of
Berea, and in 1858 and 1859 he founded Berea College. 

The bronze sculpture is located on the approximate site of Berea's first
school, which later became the Berea High School.

The park's monument will feature several figures representing various facets
of education in the early days of Berea, as well as plaques describing the
community's advances in education, racial equality and social justice.

The worth of the stolen statue was estimated at about $150,000, and $20,000
worth of damage was inflicted while removing the statue from its anchor.

If caught, the suspects would be facing the charge of theft by unlawful
taking of property valued at more than $300. If convicted, they could face
one to five years in prison.

Anyone with information about the incident can call the Berea Police
Department at 986-8456.

"Hopefully, it will show up somewhere," Clark said. "We're asking for the
public's help on this one."

Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon at richmondregister.com or 623-1669,
Ext. 234.

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