City Wants Public's Help After Pricey Fish Are Stolen

Villa Rica officials blame 3 men for illegal fishing
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 18, 2016 1:55 PM CDT
City Wants Public's Help After Pricey Fish Are Stolen
File photo of a koi fish.   (AP Photo/Kristen Alligood)

A city in Georgia has an unusual theft case on its hands: Eight fish have gone missing from a pond at a museum. And as Fox5 Atlanta explains, it's a bigger deal than it might sound given that each is worth about $3,000. The manager of the Pine Mountain Gold Museum in Villa Rica called police late last month to say that he'd seen three "suspicious" men on video drive onto the museum's property and begin fishing in its pond despite signs forbidding it, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. When the museum official then checked on the 30 koi fish in the water, he could find only 22.

Police looked into it but essentially dropped the case because the museum's surveillance video revealed no faces or anything else that might lead to the fishermen. That's when the city manager took to Facebook pleading for the public's help. "The missing Koi are reportedly direct descendants of four of the original fish purchased eight years ago when the park opened," he wrote. About the only clue is that men might have been driving an SUV with North Carolina plates. The city doesn't plan to replace the fish but might add more cameras and beef up the no-fishing signs. (More weird crimes stories.)

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