Relief In Vail After Dog Sculpture Is Found

VAIL, Colo. (CBS4) - It's a strange caper in Vail as a stolen 150-pound bronze sculpture of a golden retriever has been found. It was pried it out of a larger piece of $24,000 art work right in the middle of town.

The Cogswell Gallery usually fills the tub portion of the sculpture with soap during the summer months and it's popular with children and adults. The gallery says they're just happy the dog is back where it belongs.

"I started near the covered bridge and just walked down near the bank … and found it sitting right here," Cogswell Gallery manager Jason Leach said.

It was earlier in June month when the bronze golden retriever was taken from the sculpture called "Wash Day."

"I just pulled my pants up to my knees and wrestled it out," Leach said. "All that sediment came out of the cavity inside."

Leach said he thought the dog would be in the Gore Creek all along, but murky water and high flows hid the dog.

"It looks like it got sand-blasted on the top because the head was upstream, it was constantly being pelted by debris," Leach said. "You just take it to a foundry and they put a bunch of chemicals and heat and so on to give it all the various colors."

It didn't take CBS4's Jeff Todd very long to see how much people love the sculpture.

"I hope we can sell it, but we're going to bolt it down so it doesn't happen again," Leach said.

Leach said the case is closed in his mind but police say it's still very active. They said they haven't found much from surveillance video but are still tracking down leads.