The Exploration Place Museum in Prince George was the target of vandals and attempted thieves over the weekend.
Museum CEO Tracy Calogheros says a group of people broke into the urban garden sometime between Friday April 15th and Monday April 18th with the intent of stealing a special ordered Velociraptor sculpture.
The $1500 sculpture was placed into the garden about a year ago to act as a connecting feature for the garden to the Museum, giving visitors a chance to take selfies with him while they are learning about urban gardening.
“Someone decided they were going to steal it, and in the process, because they couldn’t remove it, they pretty much destroyed it.” Calogheros said
“They’ve broken the metal framing inside it and trashed the fibreglass, paint and artwork that’s on the outside of it and pretty much left us with a twisted mess and a bunch of ruined fencing.”
Calogheros says they are not sure if they will be able to repair the statue, but even if they can she’s hesitant to place is back outside in the garden.
“The last couple of years we’ve had a variety of thefts, we’ve had times where people have gone in a took all the produce the kids were growing all summer and we’ve had other times where people have just gone in and knocked over planters… this was the first time that it was clearly planned.”
Calogheros added that it’s a frustrating situation, because Exploration Place is a charitable group which “doesn’t have extra money laying around”. She is urging the public to speak up and call the police when they see something unusual happening around the museum or the rest of the city.
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