Theft of bronze statue leaves donor in tears

ABINGTON -- It was a phone call Jean Tsokanis never imagined she would get. On the other end of the line, Abington Library director Janet Meagher had devastating news: The $1,600 bronze statue Tsokanis had purchased two years earlier in honor of her parents, Ed and Leona Fisher, was missing from the library green.

"I was stoic taking the call," Tsokanis said last week from her Marshfield home. "But when I hung up I broke down. Oh, I cried. Who could be so heartless?"

Police believe the 40-inch-tall statue of the little girl reading a book was stolen for its value on the scrap-metal market. Bronze is valued at $2 a pound.

Tsokanis said a number of local scrap-metal shop owners have contacted her about keeping an eye out for the statue, which was bolted to a 600-pound slab of Quincy granite.

"That's not something you just go by and take," she said.

Tsokanis said the pain caused by the theft has her doubting whether she would replace the statue.

"I don't know if I could ever go through this again," she said. "My parents, who died a few years ago just nine months apart, really loved that library."

ROBERT CARROLL