500-Pound Stuffed Polar Bear Stolen

It was so cold at Canada's Lily Lake Resort on January 22 that security patrols at the hotel were canceled—so an opportunistic group of thieves broke in and stole a 500-pound, 12-foot-tall stuffed polar bear. Somehow no one even noticed the massive animal, which had undergone taxidermy, was missing for a few days: As the Globe and Mail puts it, "He'd been there so long, it felt like he would always be there," and as he was mounted on a platform on the second floor of the Edmonton-area hotel, people had to look up to see him. He hasn't been seen since the the heist, in which thieves had to sever steel cables to remove him, the Guardian reports.

The resort typically has full-time security, but there is unfortunately no video surveillance. Oddly, last August, two stuffed raccoons were also stolen from the same place. Police say the trio of taxidermy creations are worth a total of $26,000. The public is being asked to report to police if they hear about any suspicious sales of a massive stuffed bear. "That would stick out right away, if you saw that anywhere, right?" says a constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (More weird crimes stories.)