Dec 14, 2008 11:28 pm US/Eastern
Police Search For Fallen Officer's Cemetery Statue
WOODSTOCK, Md. (WJZ) ―
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Local police search for a statue which sat at a fallen officer's grave.
CBS
Prank or malicious theft?
That's the question Baltimore County police are trying to answer.
As
Gigi Barnett reports, police say someone stole a statue from the grave of a fallen Montgomery County police officer and now his family wants it back.
At the Montgomery County Police Department, there is a plaque in memory of Officer Luke Hoffman who was killed in the line of duty last year.
At Hoffman's grave site his family made another tribute him, a 15-pound, three foot tall concrete statue.
The statue is now gone, stolen last month.
"I can't imagine what kind of person would stoop so low to steal a monument to a fallen hero as was done," says Tom Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department.
Manger is Hoffman's former boss. He says the fallen officer's family is distraught over the theft.
His department plans to team up with Baltimore County police, who are in charge of the investigation since the statue was taken from St. Alphonsus Cemetery in Woodstock.
"Knowing what that tribute to their son meant to the Hoffman family, it just makes it all the more critical to me that we get that statue returned to where it belongs," Manger added.
Hoffman was hit by another police cruiser as he tried to chase down a drunken driver on foot back in April 2007.
Members of St. Alphonsus Church, which is near the cemetery, want to see Hoffman's statue returned, too.
"I think it's horrible and very disappointing and I can't understand why it would benefit anyone to steal something like that," said Chris Skopic, a St. Alphonsus parishioner.
Officer Hoffman's family has an identical concrete statue at their home in Baltimore County.
Meanwhile, investigators say still don't know what the intent was.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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