- MILLBURY, Mass.-- Police in a small New Hampshire town believe a weather
vane there was stolen by the same ring of thieves who took one from Union
Chapel in West Millbury in January. Glenn Miller, a detective with the
Plaistow, N.H., Police Department, said the thieves are believed to have
stolen weather vanes from towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine,
including ones from Plaistow and Millbury. ``They all seem to be happening
at the same time, and they seem to be after the same item. It's not something
usually that people steal,'' said Miller. Miller said more than a dozen
antique weather vanes have been stolen from different places throughout
the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states in recent months. He has few leads
on the case. A weather vane featuring the angel Gabriel was stolen from
the top of Union Chapel in West Millbury in January. The thieves stole
a ladder from a nearby house to get the weather vane, which due to its
age and design could be worth thousands of dollars. Millbury police said
they have no new leads in the case. The Plaistow weather vane featured
a steer. Missing weather vanes in Fremont, N.H., and Aurora, W.Va., featured
cows. Alfred H. Denninger, owner of Denninger's Weather Vanes in Middletown,
N.Y., believes many of the thefts are related. The thieves appear to be
targeting weather vanes that feature cows and steers, he said. ``It seems
likely. It would seem to me they are working together, because they are
stealing the same kind,î he said. Denninger is compiling information
on missing weather vanes. He plans to host a Web site alerting the antique
circuit to missing and stolen pieces. The most recent antique crime wave
has been ignited by the exorbitant and well-publicized prices some weather
vanes are getting at auctions,he said. Antique weather vanes featuring
cows and bulls have fetched more than $30,000 at auctions in the past year
or so, he said. ``Weather vanes are just really popular right now ... their
values have risen tremendously in the last 20 years,î Denninger said.
A Boston folk art dealer recently paid $222,500 for a horse-drawn fire
pumper weather vane at an auction in Maine. It was the second highest price
ever paid for a weather vane, according to Maine Antique Digest.
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- Thieves can easily sell the weather vanes
to antique dealers in large cities, which usually don't know that an item
has been stolen, Denninger said. The items often change hands many times
before ending up in large auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's,
he said. Antique weather vanes are difficult to identify, even though
many are one-of-a-kind, he said. Weather vane motifs such as cows, horses
and fish are common, he said. Most valuable weather vanes
are old, weathered and lack distinctive markings or serial numbers. Scars,
the name of an artist or any other identifying mark are easily removed
from weather vanes, Denninger said. The Plaistow steer, for example, was
damaged in the heist. The steer lost a horn, which the police recovered.
Denninger said an artist can replace the horn without a flaw, however.
Some of the thieves have gone to greater extremes than stealing pieces
from small chapels, he said. Edward and Mary Utterback of Aurora, W.Va.,
recently asked Denninger for his help in finding their weather vane, which
they reported to police as stolen. The couple reported to the local police
that someone flying a military-style black helicopter plucked a 100-year-old
cow-shaped weather vane from the 60-foot spire of their barn in broad daylight.
``The cow has only sentimental value to my family. It is part of our children's
heritage, and it belongs on our barn, not in someone's antique collection,î
the Utterbacks wrote in a letter.
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