'Really, really, really happy': Missing High River restaurant statue returned unharmed
David Bell | CBC News | Posted: June 30, 2017 7:18 PM | Last Updated: June 30, 2017
Stolen statue returned in dead of night after outpouring of support from community
Hector Lopez was deeply saddened by the theft of his restaurant's mascot but is now all smiles thanks to community support and the statue's return.
Lopez owns a Mexican restaurant called Rio Alto in High River, Alta., south of Calgary.
A rusting sculpture of a fiddler in a sombrero stood outside the front door — a welcome gift from another restaurant owner on the street — until it was stolen earlier this month.
But in the dead of night, between 11 p.m. Wednesday and 3 a.m. Thursday, the fiddler was returned anonymously.
"I am really, really, really happy that the statue has come back," Lopez told CBC News on Friday.
He says he was not expecting the outpouring of support from the town, which is the namesake of his restaurant. Rio Alto is a Spanish translation of High River.
"It's really weird. I am lucky because I didn't expect the statue to come back. A lot of people in the town, the newspaper and radio station in High River, gave me support from the news. I think maybe that is why the person decided to return the statue."
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