Fiberglass Critter Corraled Despite Bum Steer Given Police

Wall’s Meats, a butcher shop on North Euclid Street in Anaheim, got its life-size fiberglass steer back Thursday after it was dumped on the grounds of the county courthouse in Fullerton.

The owners of the butcher shop, who had offered $100 worth of steaks as ransom for the steer, said they would donate the meat to charity.

The statue was stolen from the butcher shop roof Sunday or Monday. A Los Angeles television station Wednesday night reported interviewing Cal State Fullerton students, who said they had stolen the statue as a prank.

Fullerton police said they received an anonymous telephone call Wednesday night, saying that the statue had been dumped in front of the police station. Police checked but found nothing. About midnight, however, a janitor from the county courthouse called to report finding the statue standing in front of the court’s traffic division entrance.

The statue was taken to the city’s equipment yard, where the butcher shop owners retrieved it Thursday afternoon.

“We treated it kind of casually,” said a police spokesman. “It looked like more of a prank than a serious crime.”

But in Anaheim, where the statue was stolen, police were less easy-going.

Anaheim Police Lt. Pete De Paola, chief of that department’s property crimes detail, said he didn’t know “if it’s a crime or a prank. We took a crime report. There’s a loss. We listed it as $1,000. That’s grand theft (a felony).

“If we found someone in possession of that cow--if we found them on the roof stealing it or transporting it--then they would be arrested.”