Police in Niagara Falls have arrested and charged one of two suspects they believe are responsible for the theft of the lieutenant-general Drummond statue from a city cemetery.
A 43-year-old man from the Falls was picked up by Niagara Regional Police on Thursday after detectives were able to identify the suspect through tips, however, the bronze statue has still not been recovered.
The 150-kilogram (330 pounds) piece went missing sometime between the early morning hours of Sept. 27 and the morning of Sept. 29.
Drummond Hill Cemetery is a nationally recognized heritage site most famously known as the battlegrounds of the Battle of Lundy’s Lane.
Investigators say moving the statue would have been “labour intensive” and it likely was taken with the aid of a vehicle due to its size and weight.
They also say there’s a possibility it’s no longer in one piece.
“A tactic used by metal thieves to deceive or hide evidence is to cut the stolen metal item into smaller pieces so that it can transported and sold off easier,” police said in an investigation update on Friday.
“Members of the public and scrap metal recyclers are asked to be on the look out for the statue.”
The statue is just under a metre long (31 inches) and a metre high (36 inches) and has an estimated value of more than $10,000, according to police.