Thieves Stole A Beloved Paddington Bear Statue From An English Town
One night, two men in the English town of Newbury walked up to a statue of Paddington Bear, a character from a beloved British children’s book.
The statue of the bear was wearing his signature outfit of a red bucket hat and a blue coat. He was portrayed eating his favorite food, a marmalade sandwich, while sitting on a park bench.
Security camera footage revealed the two men kicking and pulling at the statue on March 2. After some time, they managed to rip the bear from the bench, hailed a cab, and left the scene of the crime.
Later, the police identified the culprits as Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, 22-year-old engineers with the British Royal Air Force. The statue was found in Lawrence’s car at the base.
Both men pleaded guilty to criminal damage and have apologized for their actions, but that didn’t stop the judge from reprimanding them at their sentencing hearing.
“Paddington Bear is a beloved cultural icon with children and adults alike,” said Sam Goozée, a judge in the Reading Magistrates’ Court.
“He represents kindness, tolerance, and promotes integration and acceptance in our society. His famous label attached to his duffle coat [says] ‘Please look after this bear.’ Your actions were the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for.”
The men were sentenced to 150 hours of community service. They will also be required to pay over $3,500 for the statue’s restoration.
Last year, nearly two dozen statues of Paddington were erected across the United Kingdom and Ireland to attract attention and generate excitement for the new movie Paddington in Peru.
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Like the other Paddington films, this movie is based on a children’s series about a polite Peruvian bear who is adopted by a family in London written by the late British author Michael Bond. In 2017, Bond passed away at the age of 91.
According to a statement from Trish Willetts, the chief executive officer of the Newbury Business Improvement District, the whole statue heist upset the community and local businesses, especially since Bond was born in Newbury.
The damaged statue stayed at Newbury’s police station for a brief time before investigators returned it to the Newbury Business Improvement District for repairs.
The district plans to restore the statue to its former glory and place it back on the park bench once more. The bench is located just outside the Camp Hopson department store on Northbrook Street.
In the meantime, crews have set up a gazebo tent to hide the damage from the children and to protect visitors from the bench’s sharp, jagged edges.
Heath and Lawrence have also written a letter of apology to the Newbury Business Improvement District and the mayor of Newbury.
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