The search for Amelia Earhart has shifted from the South Seas to the wilds of Newfoundland and there's a total of $25,000 in rewards being offered. Police and the Canadian province's scrap dealers are urging anyone who has seen the 700 pound bronze sculpture of one of the world's most famous pilots to report it immediately so it can be returned to its plinth at Harbour Grace. The life-sized likeness was commissioned in 2007 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Earhart's solo crossing of the Atlantic, which launched from the tiny seaside town that is within a few miles of the closest point between North America and Europe. It was stolen in the early morning of April 24.
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is known for its low crime rate. Touring Newfoundland with our travel trailer in tow the entire month of June 2022, we never once felt insecure even in the remotest locations. We always felt welcomed and safe to the extent that we took few of the normal security precautions while camping there. It’s sad to read of the theft of the Amelia Earhart sculpture. In our experience this kind of event is not characteristic of the population.
It’s frustrating of course, but there are so many ways today to protect valuable items that make it surprising to me.
I’ve got inexpensive AirTags on my cars, luggage when necessary, cameras are available, gates, local volunteers for security, etc.
Not judging but it’s a large investment from the sculptor down to local community pride. Trust, but lock up your camel at night.
Hoping they will find her this time.
Some idiots stole a nine foot tall chicken filled with concrete here in South Jersey years back. Was a mascot for a grocery store. Must have weighed a lot more than a pickup truck could handle.
I lived and worked in Newfoundland (rhymes with “understand”) for three years in the mid-1970s. Newfie friends would buy a new car and leave the key in the ignition until it was traded for a new one. No one locked their doors.
In 1989 I returned for a visit and stood on the spot in St. John’s where Alcock and Brown departed on the first transatlantic flight in a Vickers Vimy. A week later I stood on the spot where they crash landed in a bog in Clifden, Ireland. NFLD is steeped in aviation history: Botwood was a stopover for the flying boats and Gander a long-time fuel stop.
Crims are clever but not smart, insisting on working harder at crime to get something dishonestly than they’d need to do real work to get.
They often trip themselves up, making police job a bit easier. One couple flew from Vancouver BC to Whitehorse YT, chartered a plane to take them to a small settlement where every resident was eligible for vaccination against the SARS2 virus, claimed they were working temporarily at a motel in the community. Then tried to bum a ride the 2km back to the small airport. Naturally someone thought that odd so called the motel, nope, so dropped a dime to police - nabbed. The guy in the pair lost his high-paying job over that, authorities considered jail time.
Regarding my point that criminals are clever not smart:
It took searching on the Internet to find a place that would vaccinate everyone at that time in the pandemic, he was in early 50s, she was in her 30s.
That settlement was vaccinating everyone because it was a stop on the Alaska Highway thus exposed to outsiders, and had many elderly residents in poor health.