From the Hollywood Walk of Fame to a humble English pub, the craze for stealing Marilyn sculptures (and sometimes murals) continues apace. The latest victim was snatched from outside The Anchor in Darwen, as Amy Farnworth reports for the Lancashire Telegraph. So do thieves really prefer blondes?
“Staff had bolted Marilyn to one of their coloured benches around two weeks ago as part of Thwaites’ Pubs in Bloom competition, in which pub bosses had also adorned the outside of the building with flowers.
But in the early hours of Tuesday morning, brazen thieves had obviously fancied themselves some ‘Monkey Business’, and nicked the beloved statue.
Landlord Lance Montgomery, who bought the blonde bombshell from eBay for a party around two years ago, said his customers loved taking selfies with Marilyn.
She even held punters’ pints for them when she lived in the pool room.
Mr Montgomery, who has run the Bolton Road pub with his wife, Melissa, for seven years, without an ‘itch’, said: ‘This is the first time anything’s been stolen from the front of the pub.’
Mr Montgomery said the whole thing was captured on CCTV, which has now been handed to the police to assist them with their investigations.
‘I always try and do things a bit controversial with the pub and the customers love it, so this isn’t going to stop me in the future, but we just want Marilyn back.’
Anyone with any information about Marilyn’s whereabouts should contact the police on 101 quoting log 0089 of July 30.”