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This concrete owl statue weighing 164 pounds was stolen from the top of a Middlebury mailbox. (Submitted photo)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Publication of news about the theft of a 25-pound cast-iron statue of a crow that sat beside the gravestone of Hunter Christian Albee in Lake Elise Cemetery brought forth news of the theft of another bird statue – a concrete owl.
Joyce Errichetti said via email that her owl statue was stolen from the top of her mailbox on or about Feb. 20 (Presidents Day). She noticed it missing after arriving home from running errands at 11:45 a.m. that day. Errichetti said she lives on a dead-end street, so the owl was not something that would be seen by a lot of people driving by.
This was not a small owl either. She wrote the concrete owl with spread wings has a 27-inch wingspan, a 12.5-inch body width and stands 24 inches high. It weighs 164 pounds.
“It must have taken two strong people to get it down from the top of my stone mailbox enclosure,” Errichetti wrote. She reported the theft to police.
On a Saturday five days after the owl theft, the Albees noticed Hunter’s crow was missing. Hunter died in November 2015 at the age of 17, and the crow statue had a very special meaning for his family.
This crow statue standing on the left a the grave site of Hunter Christian Albee in Middlebury’s Lake Elise Cemetery has been stolen. The family is asking for its return. (Submitted photo)
His mother, Laura, said in an email, “We are asking for whoever did this, knows who may have taken it, or comes across a 14-inch black cast-iron statue of a crow perched on a sphere to return it to his place of rest or to Middlebury police with no questions asked.”
She said on the phone the loss is very upsetting. “The grave is very sacred. You go and you talk to them. We lost a 17-year-old son the way we did. We lost him to suicide. That was so tragic and difficult for us to get over. I don’t think you ever really get over it.”
Laura said Hunter was a big history buff with a deep interest in Viking mythology, in which two ravens representing thought and memory fly all over the world and bring information to the god Odin. A friend who is a Vietnam vet gave the crow to the family and it helped mark the grave site during the six to seven months it took to make the headstone.
When Laura visited the grave Feb. 23, she found the site in disarray. “Everything was a shambles,” she said, but she didn’t notice the crow was missing. When her husband visited the grave with her Feb. 25, he said, “Where’s the crow?” The family hopes the crow will find its way safely back to its place by Hunter’s gravestone.
Readers with information on these two statues can call the Middlebury Police Department at 203-577-4028.
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