Life-sized Shrek statue goes missing with police launching urgent search
Police are on the hunt for a missing life-sized sculpture of beloved animated character Shrek the ogre.
The 200lb concrete sculpture disappeared from outside a home on Mountain Road, Hatfield, Massachusetts.
Investigators were left scratching their heads about the pinched sculpture and appealed to the wider public.
In a statement shared on their social media channels, a spokesperson for Hatfield Police Department wrote: "If you have any information of his current whereabouts please reach out to our department or return him in the condition you found him."
Not failing to see the funny side of the case, they also quipped: "The dragon sculpture he lives with is frustrated and lonely."
Eddie Murphy wants to play Donkey again in Shrek remake but blasts Puss in BootsThe statue is a not-exact replica of Shrek, the animated character and star of the Shrek franchise made by DreamWorks Animation.
First released in 2001, it had almost a cult following spawning a bizarre range of fan produced videos, short stories and games.
The first film, which centres around the titular Shrek and his donkey sidekick, flipped classic tales of knights rescuing helpless maidens on their head.
It was based off the 1990 picture book Shrek! by American book writer and cartoonist William Steig, which is about a horrible green monster who ends up marrying an ugly princess.
Commenting on the police statement, locals also seeing the funny side joked: "He probably went back to his swamp! Did ya check there?"
Another wrote in reference to the film:"I predict this case will have many layers. Like an onion."
It isn't the first statue to go missing from the area.
In June last year a one-and-a-half foot concrete statue of Big Foot went missing from outside a house in nearby Bernardstone.
Sarah Gray had been given the statue by her husband and four children for Christmas and had put it on a stump outside their house.
Affectionately calling it Gerald it has stood there until being pilfered.
Saturday Night Takeaway fans in hysterics as star suffers stage fall“We don’t know what happened. I don’t know if somebody thought he was maybe free,” Sarah told local paper Greenfield Recorder.
A big sign went up on the stump where Gerald previously sat, calling on whoever took him to bring him back.
Since the incident, people have stopped by to show her pictures Big Foot statues they have found, but none were Gerald.