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Bizarre Bad Luck? Artist's Sculptures Getting Hit, Stolen

GREELEY, Colo. (CBS4) -  It's been a bizarre month for an artist from Greeley who has seen her beloved sculptures make headlines. It's not happened just once, but on three separate occasions.

At the beginning of May, a well-known bear sculpture, commissioned by artist Colette Pitcher for the City of Northglenn, was stolen from Grant Park.

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(credit: city of Northglenn)

Several weeks later, an intoxicated driver careened onto the sidewalk at a Loveland Dairy Queen striking another of Pitcher's sculptures.

Picnic Table Crash 6 (from Loveland Fire Rescue Authority FB) copy
(credit: Loveland Fire)

Then on Sunday afternoon, just outside of Pitcher's Greeley art gallery, The Showroom, security cameras capture another unthinkable site.

"He went over the light post, the bench, my new tree," said Pitcher pointing to the barricade around the debris.

She then pointed to where the vehicle came to rest. One of her bronze sculptures, an unassuming cat.

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(credit: CBS)

"I'm amazed. Just amazed. He's pretty scratch free!" Pitcher said. "Strong cat. He has a little bell on his collar maybe that protected him?"

In the surveillance, you can see the high rate of speed the vehicle was traveling. Once the truck stops, the passenger jumps out the front window and runs away before police arrive. Pitcher says police told her the driver was cooperative and lost control due to the weather.

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(credit: CBS)

"They launched at a pretty good rate of speed. I can't imagine that was the 25-mile-an-hour as indicated."

She believes it says a lot about the strength of the not only the cat but the bronze in general.

"They say that after a nuclear annihilation of the earth, bronze will still remain."

Pitcher recalled a Memorial Day nearly a decade ago when she and her husband sent a life size 9/11 memorial firefighter to New York.

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Colette Pitcher (credit: CBS)

"That was a wonderful day to celebrate Memorial Day much more so than this."

With plans to install more of her well-known sculptures around the state this summer, Pitcher says she is cautiously optimistic.

"Maybe people should stop and enjoy the art and look at it closely instead of driving by at 100 miles an hour!" chuckled Pitcher.

LINK: Colette Pitcher Art

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