SAN DIEGO — San Diego Police are looking for two men who were caught on camera stealing a statue from the Hsi Fang Temple in University Heights.
The video shows the men walking by the garden with the statue in it. They proceed to wiggle the statue free then use a jacket to carry it off. The video shows the statue actually dropping to the ground at one point. CBS 8 spoke with a few people at the temple who believe a piece of the statue broke off when it fell.
Community members say they are all very attached to the statue of the mini monk.
Lieutenant Adam Sharki with the San Diego Police Department told CBS 8, “This is an active investigation. Unfortunately [we] don’t have much to release at this time because I wouldn’t want to compromise the leads we have.”
CBS 8’s Chris Gros spoke with the Venerable Miao Zang about the statue and why it is so important to the community. He said, “The parents, the kids they all love them. With that, looking at the monks brings peace, love to their mind. This is the reason why it is so valuable to us, so priceless to us.”
When asked what he would like the thieves to do, Venerable Miao Zang said, ““I’d like them to know, bring back the little monks to us. We would really appreciate and we will forget about the incident that happened.”
San Diego Police are asking anyone with information on this incident to give them a call.
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