While we don’t know what kind of a life the eagles lived while on the lam, stolen from outside the Owl Street Cafe last June, they looked quite secure back in their usual spot again Friday.
‘Close encounters’, Dan Richey’s 2009 red cedar carving of two eagles in a dramatic confrontation, was permanently re-installed Friday, Nov. 30 after a brazen heist in June 2017.
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Thieves used hydraulics to get the carving off the ground and remove the bolts. With no leads for police to go on, the carving was missing for nearly a year until a former Hope resident spotted it for sale on Craigslist for $4,500.
Victor Smith, chairperson with Communities in Bloom, listed off the locals who had been involved in bringing the eagles back to their original home in front of the Silver Creek cafe.
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“Hope Towing brought it back and stored it for us and also the Hope RCMP, for finding it. We don’t know who the person was that did the finding on Craigslist, but that was really nice of them, it sure started the whole chain of events,” he said.
Smith also thanked Skagit Heavy Duty Mechanical for putting the carving back in place. Louis Maslin has now permanently secured the carving to the ground twice: when it was first installed and again on Friday. And, of course, Communities in Bloom, who are the caretakers of Hope’s many wood carvings.
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