ou may think you love The Wizard of Oz, but you don't love it as much as this fan.
One generous Oz-head has offered a $1 million reward for credible information leading to the pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
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The pair disappeared nearly ten years ago, in August of 2005 — leaving the town to believe that the perpetrators were a group of kids, according to museum spokesperson Rob Feeney. The slippers were lent to the museum each year by their owner, collector Michael Shaw, who protested the museum's suggestion of putting them into a safe every night.
“He was the only person he felt should touch them,” Feeney said. “Nobody else.”
Instead, Shaw hand-delivered the slippers himself, and placed them on a podium surrounded by Plexiglass about 15 feet away from a window.
When the prized slippers were stolen, “we kicked ourselves in the butt for not putting them in the safe,” said Jon Miner, one of the museum’s board members. “Of course, the owner was dumbfounded. And so were we.”
The board offered $250,000, thinking the perpetrators would turn the slippers in right away, to no avail. An initial investigation found that museum cameras had been turned off, causing the town's police department to suspect that the robbery was an inside job. However, that possibility was quickly ruled out, according to Feeney, as was the possibility that the perpetrator was Shaw, the shoes' original owner.
The slippers, once insured at $1 million, are estimated to have risen in value to $2 million or $3 million, estimates the museum's executive director, John Kelsch.
The donor wished to remain anonymous, but reportedly hails from Arizona — and is obviously a huge fan of both Judy Garland and the 1939 film.
“If the slippers are sitting in a closet somewhere, somebody knows,” Miner said. “And not just the perpetrator. We’re hoping to smoke them out.”
Fuente: mashable.com
