Cop on jet ski retrieves stolen 6-foot fiberglass lobster

[matcom]

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The mystery of the lost lobster is solved.

A nearly 6-foot-long fiberglass lobster and its base that were stolen from outside Annisquam Village Hall were scheduled to be returned last night after a dive team and Gloucester police found them in an estuary.

The replica crustacean titled ''Bread & Roses" was reported stolen on Monday night, said Sue Todd, president and chief executive officer of Pathways for Children, an early education and child-care program that will receive the donations from an auction of the lobster and others like it in September.

The lobster -- decorated with an American flag and small portraits describing Gloucester -- is one of 29 painted by local artists, teenagers, and politicians and scattered throughout Gloucester.

They are part of the Lobsters Landings promotion, similar to the political statues that line some neighborhoods in Washington. A growing number of municipalities nationwide have taken to auctioning off sculptures with local themes to raise funds for charities.

Before the lobster's theft, neighbors had pooled their money to bid on the sculpture and keep it in their community, Todd said.

Residents, the sponsor, the artist, and members of the Pathways for Children organization were watching at Lobster Cove as a police detective riding in a boat pulled the sculpture from a tangle of seaweed, Todd said.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/07/15/purloined_lobster_replica_is_found_in_gloucester_cove/