This just in from the this is why we can’t have nice things Department, over the weekend someone climbed atop the newly dedicated Missouri Bicentennial monument on Chouteau Trafficway just south of I-35 and stole a roughly 6-foot bronze statue of a Native American woman that was part of the larger exhibit celebrating Francois Chouteau establishing a trading post here in 1821. The statues depicts Chouteau communicating with a Native American atop a large limestone boulder.

According to sources at the scene, the theft took place sometime between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. No other details were available at the time. Property crimes Detectives from the Kansas City Missouri Police Department we’re combing the woods and nearby public spaces for any evidence of the crime.

“This is not a Snatch and Grab,” said former KCMO Parks Director Mark McHenry who was on hand for the statue’s dedication on July 24th.  “Someone put some work into this, I mean they had to get up there on top of that thing and either saw it or unbolt it, and it’s heavy, so you know it’s most likely it’s more than one person but they had here some equipment to do it.”

KCPD Captain Santiago Garza noted that KCPD networks with a number of other police agencies and will be contacting  salvage yards and reviewing any nearby surveillance footage in an attempt to identify the thieves.

“It’s just very frustrating you know it’s $80,000 and it’s expensive,” McHenry added. “Kwan Wu, the sculptor, I mean it’s not like he can just run back home and do it over the weekend, you know, I mean this is not a simple thing to do.”

Anyone with any information in regards to the theft is asked to call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS or KCPD Police Detective Mark Spiegel at 816-413-3435.
All information will be kept confidential.