--- description: Police finally recovered a bear statue stolen from outside a Russell Stover factory in Abilene, Kansas, last year. title: Police Finally Found a Bear Statue Stolen From a Candy Factory image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Kansas](/tag/kansas/) ## Kansas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 'This Had Become a Running Joke.' Police Recover Bear Statue Stolen From Candy Factory  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Dec 15, 2017 1:38 PM CUT  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Dec 15, 2017 1:38 PM CUT Russel Stover is enjoying a sweet reunion with a bear statue that was stolen from its grounds more than a year ago. The statue of a teddy bear being doused with chocolate was stolen from the exterior of Russell Stover’s Abilene, Kan., factory in early November of last year. While the case of sticky fingers was initially investigated, “This had become a running joke,” Abilene Police Department Assistant Chief Jason Wilkins [told the Wichita _Eagle_](http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article189639584.html "undefined"). “We followed several leads and it never worked out, so we are extremely pleased to return it.” Officials reportedly got a tip from a citizen not involved in the crime on Wednesday. When they followed the lead, according to the _Eagle_, they discovered the 150-pound bear, still in good condition, in a Salina garage. The Abilene Police Department posted a photo of the recovered statue on Facebook Wednesday, to great excitement—and calls for all the juicy details—from the community. “All us \[Russell Stover\] employees are thrilled,” one commenter wrote. “Missed it so much it was family.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5065888/russell-stover-bear-statue/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5065888/russell-stover-bear-statue/"},"headline":"'This Had Become a Running Joke.' Police Recover Bear Statue Stolen From Candy Factory","datePublished":"2017-12-15T13:38:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:35:05.529Z","description":"The sweet reunion happened Wednesday","url":"https://time.com/5065888/russell-stover-bear-statue/","keywords":["Kansas","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/kansas/","name":"Kansas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5065888/russell-stover-bear-statue/","name":"'This Had Become a Running Joke.' Police Recover Bear Statue Stolen From Candy Factory"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Sweet Success of 6 Candy Companies","description":"We turned to Candy Industry Magazine to see which chocolate connoisseurs found sweet success. HERE are the Top 6.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/g6oXOE32/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-19T19:37:25.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/g6oXOE32.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5065888/russell-stover-bear-statue/","duration":"PT1M42S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5065888/russell-stover-bear-statue/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```