Piece by piece, statues stolen from charity are recovered

Las Vegas police have found the metal statues stolen this week from Opportunity Village.

But the discovery was bittersweet for workers at the charity for the mentally challenged.

"I think it would be easier if we didn't know and could think they were in someone's grandma's yard," said Cary Harned, the group's grant and major gifts officer. "But to know they were chopped up is hard to take."

Both statues had been cut into dozens of pieces when detectives found them Thursday at a metal recycling yard at 2630 Betty Lane, near Nellis Boulevard and Carey Avenue, police said.

A tipster called police Thursday and reported a man seen cutting statues in the northeast part of the valley, and the ensuing investigation led to the statue pieces, police said.

Someone stole the statues Monday night or Tuesday morning from the Opportunity Village campus on Oakey Boulevard near Jones Boulevard. One statue was an angel. The other was two children sitting on a bench.

The statues cannot be fixed and will probably end up as recycled metal, Harned said.

"In tiny little bits. I think we can call it scrap now," she said. "We're very sad about the whole thing."

The silver lining in the theft, however, was the hundreds of calls of support the charity received this week.

Detectives were following up leads in the thefts, which are part of a growing problem in Southern Nevada. Rising prices for copper and other metals have sent thieves scavenging for any metals they can find, said Lt. Robert DuVall, who heads the police property crimes bureau.

"You would think something like kids' statues, especially at Opportunity Village, would be safe," DuVall said. "Unfortunately, that's not the case."