On a cool October morning, the people of The Colony were starting their days off normal. They had their breakfast, their coffee, and many decided to go on a dawn walk at the Five Star park. However this morning was different, something was missing. The bronze statues of children playing that used to guard the entrance of the park were no longer there. It was soon realized that they were stolen.

A couple days later, after the initial shock of the original theft faded. The veterans memorial, five plaques representing the sacrifices made by members of the five branches of the military, vanished. Those too were stolen. 

The community of The Colony Texas is hurt after the theft of a veterans monument, and statues that are symbolic for the community itself.

The Statues of the children playing that were proudly displayed outside of the Five Star Sports Complex were stolen in the early morning hours of October 19. These statues were purchased shortly after the opening of Five Star, even though the statues were mass produced, they cost several thousand dollars each. These statues meant more than some decoration to many members of the community, including Parks Director Pam Nelson. The statues were seen as a reflection of the goals of the Parks and Recreation department, to be a nurturing environment for children.

 “Those figures were placed at the entrances of the parking lots as a way to welcome hundreds of thousands of young players and their families to the facility for games and tournaments over the past 15 years,” said Nelson. “They were a part of Five Star’s identity, and were a symbol of the love this community has for our kids. People took it very personally when they were stolen.”

The community was disgusted by the thefts. On facebook many community members expressed their anger towards the thefts, by insulting the perpetrators and by showing how the thefts hurt them. 

“People are starting to tear up my beautiful city,” said Erica Thompson in a comment under a facebook post about the thefts. 

Five days after the original theft another occurred. Early on the morning of October 24, five plaques honoring veterans were stolen from the memorial at the center of Five Star. All five plaques were purchased with funds raised by the American Legion Group. Stephen Hines was one of the people to donate money towards the plaques, because he understood the memorials’ importance.

  “It (The Five Star memorial) is a place to honor and remember those who have served and sacrificed for our country in acts involving conflict with an armed enemy,” said Hines. “Some of those sacrifices included being killed in action and loss of limb and mental wounds lasting for life.”

Hines is an accomplished veteran, he served in the United States Coast Guard for 20 years, including serving in Vietnam for a year in the late sixties. He provided the funds for coast guard plaque and participated in the American Legion honor Guard at the memorial several times. Like many other members of the American Legion, Hines was disgusted to learn of the thefts. 

“My emotions were initially anger,” said Hines. “Now mostly despair that someone would do this apparently for the value of scrap metal.”

Since the thefts, there has already been some discussion of the replacements of the statues or monuments. The replacement of the stolen statues and plaques has one main problem, money. According to Nelson a full replacement would cost approximately 30 thousand dollars.

The community is doing everything in its power to find the plaques and statues. Originally there was a $1000 bounty on information of the theft. But now through donations the bounty sits at $4000, showing how much the community wants justice. 

“During a time when there seems to be a lot of division and strife within our society, people are 100%  united in their anger about these thefts,” said Nelson. “One of our baseball associations was so upset, they donated enough money to double the reward that is being offered to recover the items. If anything, this has brought people together for a united cause and heightened the sense of pride and protection of one another that already exists in our community.”