Thief makes away with duckling from Public Garden

people really need to get a hobby or a life (both). I blame this on college students from NY. Do we pay them extra yet to cross state lines!?!

Fret not. I heard that Obama appointed him to be Director of the National Wildlife Service. With a 6 figure salary, cushy benefits and a great pension, it certainly beats freezing his butt off and hanging around with all the winos in the Public Garden.

Unfortunately, these will likely be sold to a scrap metal company for pennies and 'unknowingly' melted down just like the Longfellow Bridge incident.

Why do people always have to ruin things for everyone else, I am so tired of this kind of behavior. Snap out of it.

This is getting crazy why would they do such a thing

This totally stinks. I know there are more important things to be concerned with like the economy and unemployment and North Korea. But if we're being asked to care about Tom Brady and Giselle's wedding ad nauseum then I think we can take some time to show our concern that a public work of art of a cherished children's book that has worldwide fame was vandalized. Have we really become that mean-spirited?
To the unenlightened moron that took Pack just give him back. Or if not then let me know where and when I can buy a "Bring Pack Back" button.

There has been a stupid scavenger hunt going on around Boston...I bet he was on it.

Time to invest some money in a camera near by. Might help to dissuade some of the other bad habits happening around there as well at night, or during the day.

SoxSupporter - Why are you blaming NYers?

Are they made of copper or copper alloy? That's good money for someone selling scrap to get high.

Drugs...HOOOH...Don't do 'em!

Maybe Obama stole it to replace the puppy his daughters so desperately crave.

If they have to make a new one they add a gps tracking device inside!

These kind of incidents make rendition look good. If we catch the thief, we should send him/her to Singapore for appropriate punishment. Alternatively, we could set up stocks by the ducklings to accord the perp(s) traditional, Bostonian punishment.

I have only been a resident of the Boston area for a little over a year and a half, and these ducklings are already considered beloved by myself and my family. I hope that Mack is brought back safe and sound.

Doesn't this happen every year?

I agree with the Camera Idea, and SHAME ON YOU! who ever did this. I think it's time to grow up and return the duckling, or at least let someone else bring it in. Watch out for that thing called Carma!!

Times like this make me think an asteroid hitting us isn't such a bad thing.

Again strike the immature, perhaps desperate, among us. How sad! Leave the precious duckling alone!

They just noticed the duckling was gone this morning? It was missing yesterday afternoon! My daughter and I were there and I was telling her that occasionally someone steals the ducklings and I saw that one was gone and pointed out where it should have been.
How bizarre!

lfuller...it's Karma! Geez, some people

this is the SIXTH time a duckling has been stolen and there are NO cameras monitoring the statue????
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me SIX TIMES...?

Another Boston lowlife does it again. If they catch the idiot the judge should sentence him/her to 30 days of service watching the ducklings for 8 hours a day as punishment.

Unfortunately these types of senseless acts take place in every city across the country. We have become a selfish, me-first society & to hell with anyone else.

From idiotic drivers hellbent on getting to the next red light before anyone else to the 12 year old kids who NEED a cellphone to the meltdown on Wall Street, America has lost its values & moral compass (btw, I DON'T mean religious values or morals).

When was the last time you saw someone hold the door open for someone else or give up their seat on the T? Ok, it happens but not nearly as often as it should ... people (especially parents) should look in the mirror more often.

I am with the poster, who suggested to install a camera. We have cameras all over the city of Boston - why not a camera to protect one of this city's most beloved sculptures.
Probably a college student prank. But that is really no excuse. Even MIT students would not do such a ting for their yearly prank.
Grow up and bring the duckling back .

If you find the duck - I hope you will punish whoever took it cleaning up the mess ducks leave in the

Where is Mumbles when you need him?
Shame on the person or people who pilfered the duck. I agree with those suggesting cameras. In fact, both the Public Garden and Boston Common should have cameras throughout. There is certainly enough criminal activity to warrant it.

I just find it amusing that the cops only noticed this morning that the duckling was gone. We were in the park yesterday afternoon and MANY people noted that one was missing!

I will miss pack thought he may return someday.

I bough a 'Bring Back Mack Button' for 5 bucks at the Eliot Lounge. I'd gladly buy another button for 25 bucks if they bring back the bar too.

Really, I'd rather we DON'T have surveillance cameras everywhere like in the UK. They citizens over there are losing their rights in drips and drabs in the name of 'public safety.'

maybe if the Boston Park Rangers were on patrol 24 hours a day this could have been prevented

What is the attraction to stealing public art? I love those ducks.

This is absoultely horrid, What kind of a person would steal one of the ducklings and what are they going to get from it? What is this world coming to? It is a pathetic society we are living in people.

When "Gone Baby Gone" was being filmed in my neighborhood, I heard Ben Affleck ask for some protestors to appear in one of the scenes, saying that there are protestors who will use ANY forum, even one unrelated to their "cause", as an excuse to publicize it.

This forum is no different. Do we REALLY need to read cheap-shot cracks about the President and the Mayor, here? What relevance to the theft do those cracks have? I wish that these people would go back to their crayons, and stop wasting electricity with their juvenile rants.

Ha. Ha. Haaaaa. That was funny. Now please return the duck. That's right up there with selling a dead parakeet to a blind kid.

IF YOU DON'T INVEST IN SECURITY THEN WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU EXPECT???

In the area of this sculpture there should be one or more of: video surveillance, theft detection system, regular patrols. This is obviously a high risk theft target so it needs some extra security attention... otherwise it will just keep happening! In London police surveillance cameras are everywhere and people don't seem to mind.

How despicable! What are they going to steal next - Christmas???

check the top of the dome at MIT...

To those of you who are amused that the police just noticed the missing duck today when you noticed it missing yesterday...did it occur to you to call the police and tell them? Because if you did, I think they may have known about it yesterday, too.

I grew up in Boston, am in my fifties, and still have my copy of "Make Way for Ducklings" from when I was a child. That story was my first glimpse of downtown when I was a child and seeing those statues has always been a beautiful reminder of growing up in this great city.
I hope they catch the thief and I agree with the poster who mentioned the proper Bostonian punishment, the stocks

Dear Mack
I miss you.I hope you are safe and well please come back soon everyone in your family missing you and city of boston too.
Police worry about you mayor worry about you,please yell kwack kwack so we can hear you and bring home soon
your Fan
Raju Kumar
138 summer st
Somerville,ma 02143
email rajuway@msn.com

Word is it was stolen as part of a pubcrawl/scavenger hunt Saturday night. I don't know the name of the kid who took it but I heard one of the teams got it. I think the winning team was from northeastern. I think one of the other items on the same hunt was some sign from newbury street.

To Bruce, and all of the others who advocate camera surveillance or security, I hope the Mayor and the many readers of this piece have already dismissed this approach out of hand. We have to expect better of society, that people don't deface property, vandalize graveyards, urinate in public and so on, and work with conviction toward that end. Under the argument for technological solutions to these crimes, every beautiful tree, shrub and sculpture in the public realm will need those who enjoy them to pay the piper, i.e. the camera installers and their remote operators, for peace of mind.

Speaking about those who see nuclear proliferation as unstoppable, President Obama said in Prague on Sunday: "This fatalism is a deadly adversary. For if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable." The same to a much less serious degree holds true for holding the belief that crimes like those mentioned here are always going to occur until we pay "protection" to security firms and camera salesmen. As in Shakespeare, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings", the fault here is in the paranoid negativism of advocates of increased surveillance, which only serves to confirm a venue for the pranksters.

Rose,

I was thinking the exact same thing. If they noticed yesterday, why didn't they report it?

Steve Swonk,
You use non-sequiturs (a quote about not blaming fate for our position in the world), fallacies (security is either all or none) and hyperbole (investing in security is akin to paying protection). Well done! Instead of a reasoned argument or a counter-proposal you respond with flawed rhetoric. Is your solution "We have to expect better of society"? I'm sure you have a lock on your front door: That's technology. Should I conclude "Pretty soon we'll be putting locks on EVERYTHING!". Regardless of your expectations, the reality is that this sculpture attracts negative attention from thieves, pranksters and other derelicts. I don't expect better or worse from society. I look at the facts and then consider the best response. If no security is added to this sculpture we'll be reading of another theft in a few years. That's what I "expect" if nothing is done to mitigate the risk.

It was probably run over and taken by a Boston cop parking his car illegally.

It's probably a good idea to take a wait and see approach to the disappearance of Pack. Instead of outrage and surveillance cameras or quotes from President Obama, let's take it down a notch. This has happened in the past and the ducklings have been returned. Most likely this is a college prank. It's not on the level of the Earthquake in Italy or the recent shootings in New York. I understand that most people have a short fuse right now; it's been a long winter and it's still cold and rainy out there. I would suggest, however, that we are giving the person(s) who have taken Pack just what they wanted -- a lot of outrage and way too much drama.

i can't believe people can do such a thing right in a open park but yet it don't sirprize me in this day an age. some of these coments are pretty stupid, like #2 an#11 , but on the other hand #12 an #8 are really greate ideas. this city should really think about it!!!

Apparently the duck is back is policy custody today - just saw a quick ad for the upcoming 12 o'clock news on channel 5...

Why is Pack in police custody? He should be drinking hot chocolate waiting for Mrs. Mallard to pick him up.