photo by Leslie Cantu

A gap between the figures shows where the boy in the train conductor’s hat once stood.

photo by Leslie Cantu

Epoxy and the remnants of a screw are all that’s left to show where the boy in the train conductor’s hat once stood.

photo by Leslie Cantu

Once again, someone has stolen an outdoor sculpture from one of Summerville’s public parks.  The victim this time is a little bronze boy who was balancing on a short brick wall with his friends in an Azalea Park sculpture called “Follow the Leader.”  

Mike Hinson, director of parks and recreation, said it looks like someone just pulled on it until it snapped off.  Local scrap and recycling businesses have been alerted in case the thief attempts to sell the piece, he said. 

In the last case, someone stole “Dreamin’ of the Big Game” from the Gahagan Sports Complex, Hinson said.  That one turned up at a scrap metal yard but had been so defaced it had to be replaced, he said.

“Follow the Leader” is insured, Hinson said. The retail cost to replace it is $15,000, but the artist, Stanley Proctor, will work with the town, said Janet Meyer, executive director of Sculpture in the South.

“It just didn’t need to happen.  It’s there for people to enjoy, and unfortunately someone took advantage of it,” Meyer said. 

Peggy Proctor, who acts as her father’s business manager, said it was “incredibly sad” to learn the boy had been stolen.  “Somebody really had to work hard to get him off the wall,” she said.

Most of Stanley Proctor’s sculptures are inspired by childhood memories, Peggy Proctor said  -- both of his own childhood and those of his three children.  Many portray a “simpler fun,” she said.

He’s been sculpting for 20 years and over that time there have been a few incidents of his works being harmed, most of which seem to have happened in the last few years, Peggy Proctor said.

It’s a challenge to protect art works that are out in public, Hinson said.  The police patrol, but of course the art isn’t guarded around the clock.  The sculptures in Azalea Park aren’t visible from the road.

Bill Pilaud was enjoying the unusually pleasant afternoon at the park Tuesday with his aunt.  He noticed the Follow the Leader sculpture had an odd gap between the children and was about to investigate further when he learned that a part of the sculpture was missing.

It’s too bad people have to ruin something beautiful, he said.

Meyer asked that anyone who might have seen suspicious people or vehicles to call the police.  Whoever has the sculpture should leave it in a public place, and it most likely can be repaired, Proctor said.

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