Purdue police have erased the search for a missing 12-foot pencil from their to-do list and are crediting the media’s sharp focus for the sculpture’s return.
The 200-pound pencil sculpture was reported missing earlier this week from its pedestal in Pickett Park.
The Purdue University Police Department reports the pencil, undamaged despite its ordeal, was found discarded in the grass next to the Slayter Center for the Performing Arts on the university’s north side Thursday morning.
Purdue Police Captain Keene Red Elk says the publicity surrounding the heist may have been enough to scare the thieves into dumping the sculpture.
"How do you hide a 12-foot pencil?" He asks bluntly. "At some point in time somebody was going to notice it and probably turn the parties in."
Throughout the week, the story of the university’s pilfered pencil captured the public’s imagination with news outlets from as far away as Washington, D.C. and Arizona running blurbs on the theft.
While most saw the story as an amusing anecdote, the stolen pencil is in fact worth an estimated $9,00 and its theft is still being treated as a crime. Police are still looking for information.
