A life-sized statue of the iconic American baseball player Jackie Robinson was found on Tuesday, broken and burned in a trash can one week after it was stolen from a Kansas park, police said.
The bronze statue, which once served as a symbol of inspiration for a generation of young baseball players in Wichita, Kan., was stolen from McAdams Park around midnight on Thursday. Police said the thieves, who severed the Robinson statue at its ankles, were captured in security camera footage as they loaded the statue into the back of a silver pickup truck.
Then, on Tuesday morning, the Wichita Fire Department was alerted to a trash can fire at Garvey Park. Police said after the flames were extinguished, firefighters identified pieces of the Robinson sculpture among the debris.
The statue could not be saved. The Wichita Fire Department said additional parts of the Robinson statue have not yet been found.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Wichita City Council Member Brandon Johnson said the city is “undeterred in making sure that that statue gets rebuilt and put back there for our community.”
The motive for stealing the Robinson sculpture is not yet known.
Authorities have called the theft and destruction of the statue “disgraceful.”
In a press conference Friday, Wichita Chief of Police Joe Sullivan said the theft of the Robinson statue “should upset all of us.”
“I’m frustrated by the actions of those individuals who had the audacity to take the statue of Jackie Robinson from a park where kids and families and our community gather to learn the history of Jackie Robinson, an American icon, and play the game of baseball,” he said.
Sullivan said he took special issue with the statue of Robinson, who was Black, being stolen just before the start of Black History Month in February.
The Jackie Robinson statue was valued at US$75,000 (almost C$100,350).
Police initially offered a cash reward for tips leading to the statue’s return. Now, authorities have said they are determined to bring justice and find the perpetrators.
Authorities said they have interviewed over 100 people and now have “promising” leads.
The statue of Robinson was created by artist John Parsons and donated to the Wichita community in 2021 by the local non-profit Little League organization League 42, which aims to facilitate baseball for youths in the city. (Robinson’s number with the Brooklyn Dodgers was 42.)
League 42 called the sculpture’s theft “a gut punch” and wrote that the “Jackie statue is our sacred place.”
The statue cost League 42 about US$50,000 (about C$66,950), according to the Associated Press.
Bob Lutz, the executive director of League 42, said the mould made to create the Robinson statue is still usable. He promised that the statue will be recreated and replaced in McAdams Park as part of a “joyous occasion.”
League 42 has established a GoFundMe to raise money to reinstate the Robinson sculpture and fund the group’s operational needs.
Police in Wichita are continuing their investigation into the theft. Meanwhile, the Wichita Fire Department is investigating the arson.
Authorities have urged anyone involved in the theft of the statue to turn themselves in to police.
In his life, Robinson was a talented baseball player and civil rights figure. Born in 1919, Robinson would go on to become the first Major League Baseball player to break the organization’s “colour barrier” and play on a racially integrated team for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He played with the Dodgers for 10 years, then following his retirement, was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other civil rights groups.
Robinson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, 10 years before his death in 1972 at age 53.