This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City police say they have recovered a stolen bronze statue of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and arrested two of four suspects in the heist.
The statue was not damaged and is in the process of being returned to its owner, Detective Robert Ungricht said at a Tuesday evening news conference. An anonymous tip led to the recovery and arrest of a male suspect.
Late Wednesday morning, SLCPD confirmed that officers had arrested a second man, and continued to look for the remaining suspects — a man and a woman believed to be living in the area of West High School and 200 North.
Police have not released specifics about exactly where and when the the 800-pound sculpture of Mormon founder Smith and his prophet successor Young was found.
The bronze statues were snatched from their spot in front of Salt Lake City's Northgate Business Park about 4 a.m. Tuesday.
Security cameras captured the thieves — a blonde woman and three men, one with a limp — loading the artwork, which depicts the two LDS leaders sitting together on a park bench, onto a black, single-axle utility trailer hitched to an older model white Ford Explorer.
Ungricht said the owner of the sculpture, who also owns the business center at 825 N. 300 West, values the piece at $125,000. The owner and others who reported the theft told detectives they were shocked the thieves were able to load the statue by hand — it had previously been only moved using a small tractor.
Detectives had been worried that the thieves wanted to chop up the statue into easier-to-handle pieces to sell as scrap. But it was found intact, Ungricht said, and investigators remain unsure why the thieves wanted it.
Three detectives were working the case, considered a top priority for the department.
Asked about the brazen nature of the crime, Ungricht replied: "It's amazing."
"It's en route back to the owner, and that was our main goal here," he said.
Twitter: @lramseth