10-foot, 300-pound metal rooster stolen from vintage shop

The rooster is roughly 10 feet tall and weighs in at more than 300 pounds of scrap metal. For two weeks, “Rocket the Rusty Rooster” was perched in front of the Athens, Georgia, business that commissioned his existence.

The metal bird was stolen sometime between 9:30 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday.

“I am angry and saddened,” Bonnie Harris said. Harris is the owner of Lexington Vintage, a place for artists to showcase their work in Athens. Harris said she has only been open for four months and the rooster was an attention getter for passing motorists.

“We were trying to use him to bring attention to the store. That was a huge chunk of our advertising budget to try and get attention,” Harris said.

Since the rooster was worth $3,000, Athens-Clarke County Police said the person/s responsible would face felony charges.

Harris said she hopes whoever took the rooster doesn’t destroy it for a couple dollars worth of scrap metal.

“I hope it is somebody who recognized, hey this is a really cool piece of art and they took it impulsively and would see this and bring it back. However, I know I can’t rely on the integrity of a thief,” Harris said.