'Gaudiest' Naperville dragon sculpture reported stolen
Roughly a year after Naperville Mayor George Pradel's "Mystic Dragon" sculpture was stolen, another of the decorated dragons produced for a United Way fundraiser has gone missing.
Naperville resident Kurt Allgauer said his dragon statue was on display in his front yard when he left home Thursday for his son's freshman football game. But when he got back a couple of hours later, the sculpture was gone.
Only a spot of dead grass remained.
Allgauer said he's hoping the dragon's distinctive appearance will make it easy to spot and return to its rightful home.
"It is the gaudiest thing you've ever seen," he said about the 75-pound Fiberglas sculpture that stands more than 5 feet tall. "The artist tried to represent 20 different animals on this dragon. It's got zebra stripes and all kinds of crazy stuff."
Allgauer reported the dragon stolen to Naperville police and told them it must have been taken between 4 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sgt. Bill Davis said.
The dragon had been on Allgauer's lawn on the 400 block of South Columbia Street for three months before it vanished.
"It was almost certainly a two-person job to throw it into a vehicle," Allgauer said.
Previously, Allgauer's mother-in-law displayed the dragon in her yard after he bought it from an employee of a bank. The bank had won the dragon in an auction during a fundraiser in 2006.
Allgauer's dragon and Pradel's were two of 50 designed, sculpted and painted for display and auction that year.
Pradel's sculpture, called "Knighty-Knight," holds a miniature statuette of the mayor himself in its left arm and a book called "Goodnight Naperville," in its right. It was dragged out of his yard and thrown onto nearby train tracks on June 1, 2013, by a pair of college wrestlers, one of whom attended nearby North Central College.
Pradel's dragon was found and returned not long after he reported it missing. Allgauer said he wants his sculpture to have the same fate.
Allgauer's dragon looks like it's still hatching out of an egg. It has cheetah spots and zebra stripes, yellow eyes, a pink snout and a green chin.
"This one's so unique it could be called ugly," Allgauer said. "And it has been called ugly."
A police report about the stolen dragon had been completed but not yet been reviewed, so Davis said he had no further comment. Naperville police can be reached at (630) 420-6666.