Some time Wednesday night—or early Thursday morning, if you're picking up what I'm putting down (glug glug glug)—a team of thieves made off with a giant, three-dimensional Royals figure that had been affixed to a billboard above I-435 and Truman Road in Kansas City. The billboard was made to look like center field in Kauffman Stadium and the player was depicted leaping over to make a catch. The figure is 14 feet tall and weighs 150 pounds, so this took some effort.
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The figure was anchored to the billboard at four different points and the "thief or thieves removed the connections, dropped the figure and hauled it away." It obviously has to be "thieves," plural, doesn't it? Fourteen feet and 150 pounds is pretty unwieldy for one person, especially high above on a billboard. But humans can show remarkable strength and agility when required, so who knows? Maybe for one person, this enormous Royals statue was like a baby trapped under a car for a supermom.The now bare billboard was one of six throughout the city that had gone up at the start of the season. They were actually scheduled to come down soon, and two have already been taken down by the company. The giant players are scheduled to go back up at the end of the season, so they have some time to find the stolen one.UPDATE: The 14-foot Royals player has been found, ditched in a patch of bushes on the side of the road, like it was the biggest piece of litter anyone ever threw out of a car."I would like to believe that somebody out having a good time last night thought that would be a really cool thing to do, but I don't know," said Bob Fessler, a vice president with the local Lamar Advertising.
Workers traveling north on I-435 called in when they noticed the Royals player had been removed. The company filed a theft report with the Jackson County sheriff's office, which assigned deputies to investigate.
h/t Reddit for the image[KC Star]#BREAKING: Royals player stolen from billboard has been found @KCTV5 (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/9J4lGWjeY7
— Brandon Richard (@BrandonLRichard) April 29, 2016