Stolen pig statue leaves neighborhood disgruntled
Carolyn Patterson points to an area that once contained a 70-pound bronze sculpture of a piglet. Thieves recently stole the sculpture.
By Nathan Vickers
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MISSION, Kansas (KCTV) — Carolyn Patterson hoped the bronze sculpture in front of her house would inspire people passing through her neighborhood.
At the center of her circle drive, a winged piglet looks up at its mother perched atop a rock. It’s a piece she and her husband, Bill, commissioned last fall, called “Dream Big.”
“I think that’s something we all should do,” Patterson said.
The Pattersons own a hog wild collection of swine figurines and sculptures inside their house, too. They have collected them from all over the world.
“Some are trash and some are treasure,” she said. “They all came to us because they struck our fancy and made us happy.”
They installed the sculpture in September. It quickly drew attention from neighbors, epeciall kids.
Tyler and Hannah Tarpey, teenagers who live a few doors down, enjoy seeing it when their family drives or walks by nearly every day.
“We just thought it was funny. It was a random and a happy statue,” Tyler said.
“I just liked how happy it was when we drove by it,” added Hannah.
But earlier this week someone paid the pigs a visit in the middle of the night. The Pattersons’ security cameras show someone jerking the 70 lb bronze piglet loose from its base, picking it up and carrying it to a nearby car.
News of the theft generated several angry Facebook and Nextdoor posts. On Sunday Carolyn posted a sign by the sculpture that says, “Please bring him back.”
“It’s not valuable to them,” she said. “It’s only valuable to me because it’s something I love.”
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