Man accused of stealing sculpture had simple reason — ‘he liked it,’ Florida cops say
When a woman saw a man walking down a major Florida road with what looked like large red poles, she became suspicious.
It was nighttime in Stuart on Jan. 30, and the woman decided to call officers to come and check out the situation, the Stuart Police Department said in a Jan. 31 Facebook post.
“(Our officer) located the male in the 1100 block of US-1 walking with his newly acquired piece of art,” police said.
He wasn’t just carrying metal poles. He was holding a large sculpture of a stick figure, police said.
The man, who police said had a “history of thefts and burglaries”, told officers he had taken the sculpture from behind an area business.
Why? He told officers it was “because he liked it,” police said.
The man was taken to the Martin County Jail on a theft charge, officers said.
But then they had to figure out how to get the sculpture back to its rightful place.
“How do we transport large art pieces to the station?” police asked. “See the pictures below. No packages or vehicles were damaged during transport.”
Commenters on the post said the sculpture appears to be a “Tube Dude,” part of a metal work collection from a Sarasota-based artist.
Similar pieces in the collection are sold for upwards of $2,000, according to its website.
Stuart is about 110 miles north of Miami.
This story was originally published February 1, 2024 at 11:35 AM.
