Shrouded in plastic bag, a little bruised but not broken

Gone Oscar returns to Rockland Strand Theatre

Tue, 02/24/2015 - 10:45am

    ROCKLAND — Yesterday, we reported the theft of a four-foot-tall Oscar statue from the Strand Theatre, in Rockland. Today, news comes that the Oscar was returned sometime during the dark hours, a little bruised but not broken, and shrouded in a plastic bag. The statue, named Oscar, stands sentry along with his counterpart, Oscar, in the theater lobby every year during the Academy Award screen parties held there.

    Sometime Sunday night, one of the two Oscars went gone.

    But on Tuesday morning, Feb. 24, House Manager Liz McLeod said she discovered the statue had been returned.

    “We don’t know how he was returned, or who returned him,” McLeod said, in a news release that swiftly circulated to local media. “And we don’t know why or by whom he was taken in the first place. But we’re glad he was returned to us without the need for a police investigation.” 

    The 10-year-old foam-and-paper statue did sustain some injury as a result of the incident, McLeod said.

    “He was cracked nearly in two just below his hips, as though the thieves tried to fold him in half,” she said. “That would be no small feat, since he’s almost four inches thick, and we’re lucky he wasn’t destroyed by the attempt. But with a little glue and archival mending tape, he should be fully recovered and ready for display again next February.”

    The Oscar is one of two figures that were custom-made for the Strand by the Saltwater Film Society in 2006, for an event called ‘Red Carpet Robberies.’

    The figures were in place in the Strand lobby Sunday night, as approximately 100 glamorous guests paraded past on their way to watch the Academy Awards ceremony on the big screen.

    When the theater closed for the evening, however, one Oscar was missing.

    McLeod said she would be padlocking the statues next year to cinderblocks.

    “Just in case anybody else gets any funny ideas.”

    But was he taken, or did he stage his own disappearance?


    Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657