Thieves grazing in greener pastures shattered the idyll of Lakewood’s White Fence Farm this week by rustling two life-sized bronze sheep statues from the 12-acre estate.
Bare ground is exposed where the sheep once serenely posed in mid-chew on manicured lawn near the farm-themed park’s massive white-brick restaurant and duck pond.
The sheep-lifters considered the statues worth their weight in bronze, yet the several hundred dollars the metal might bring is pennies on the dollar of the artwork’s value, $20,000 to $30,000.
Police had one lead Friday. Atlas Metal & Iron Corp., a Denver scrap yard, reported two young men had tried to sell their “grandmother’s sheep.”
The metal recycler told White Fence Farm co-owner Charlie Wilson the duo left with the sheep after the yard declined to buy what were likely hot animals unless proof of ownership was provided.
The crime, which occurred early Thursday morning, caused Wilson to temporarily move and hide several remaining property denizens, including a third sheep left behind and little bronze girl “Jessica,” weighing about 400 pounds. Perpetrators had started but failed to remove her from the entertainment complex at 6263 W. Jewell Ave.
“I thought if I didn’t do something quickly and these others disappeared too, I’d kick myself,” Wilson said. “What was special about the sheep is that they were the first pieces of art we purchased.”
Wilson grew up at this spot, baling hay on what was the 80-acre family farm. In 1973, he and his parents converted it to a restaurant and park, replete with a farm-animal petting corral, Americana Barn and Country Cottage shopping areas, a horse-drawn carriage, a gazebo, a treehouse, carousel horses, a Pig Chute slide, and a car-sized white chicken riding atop the “Cluck Truck,” among other amusements.
The Wilsons bought the bronze sheep from the Minturn foundry of artist Mary Zimmerman in 1989, he said.
“My concern is that they need to be found quickly before they’re cut up or melted down,” Wilson said.
Lakewood police spokesman Steve Davis said theft of metals, such as removal of copper piping and fittings from area irrigation fixtures, has been commonplace for several years.
“Copper is the prime target,” Davis said. But bronze statues and benches are occasionally nabbed.
Davis said a multiagency law enforcement program called STOMP, or Stop Theft of Metal Products, sends e-mail alerts with descriptions and photos of stolen metals to recyclers across Colorado.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
