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A person has been arrested in reference to the Jan. 25 theft of a Jackie Robinson statue from McAdams Park in Wichita, Kansas, police introduced in a information convention on Tuesday.
Ricky Alderete, 45, has been charged with felony theft and making false data, police stated. Detectives carried out 100 interviews whereas investigating the theft to search out out who –and why– the crime was dedicated, police stated.
League 42, the nonprofit group who put up the bronze Jackie Robinson statue on the park in 2021, was initially involved the statute –certainly one of solely 4 of the famed athlete within the nation– was stolen and vandalized in a racially-motivated hate crime.
Police stated in an announcement that the “investigation has not revealed any proof indicating that this was a hate-motivated crime.” As a substitute, police consider the “theft was motivated by the monetary achieve of scrapping frequent metallic.”
Thieves typically steal bronze, copper and different metals to resell it to scrap yards. Scrap metallic thefts have been on the rise lately as costs of metals like bronze have elevated, in line with a report from Market Analysis Future. Final month in Los Angeles, a bronze plaque was stolen from Bruce’s Seaside because the county struggles with an increase in metallic theft.
Alderete allegedly reduce the Jackie Robinson statue off on the ankles and put it on a pickup truck, police stated. The statue’s stays have been discovered by the Wichita Hearth Division dismantled, burned and unsalvageable in a small trash hearth.
League 42, which was based in 2013 and named after Robinson’s jersey quantity, raised $194,780 by means of a web-based marketing campaign launched to interchange the statue. However on Feb. 1 the MLB stated that the league and its golf equipment will change the vandalized statue. Funds may even be supplied to League 42 to assist the nonprofit’s on-field and tutorial work, in line with the league’s announcement.
League 42 Government Director Bob Lutz stated donated funds can be used “to function our amenities and training initiatives” for underserved youth and “to put in higher safety across the statue space and new lights and synthetic turf for 2 of our enjoying fields.”
Simrin Singh contributed to this report.
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