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Crime & Safety

More Downtown Batavia Art Vandalized, Someone Goes After Bulldogs

Two of the fiberglass artworks that are part of the Bulldogs Unleashed art exhibit were damaged on July 4, according to police reports.

For the second time this year, Batavia's downtown artwork became a target for vandals.

Someone knocked the smoking pipe off the "Sherlock Bones" fiberglass dog located at the corner of South River and East Wilson streets, according to a July 4 Batavia Police report. Police were not able to locate the pipe.

Police also reported on the same day that someone knocked the cigar sticking out of the mouth of the "Staff Sergeant Batavia, Support Our Troops" fiberglass dog, which is located on the Donovan Bridge. After ripping the bulldog's cigar off, someone replaced it with a cardboard one, only to have that one broken off as well. 

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The dogs are two of the 25 in Bulldogs Unleashed, an art exhibit that features the canines across downtown. For more about this project, click here.

“It’s unfortunate—you can’t be surprised as much, you would hope no one would touch them and respect them,” said City Administrator Bill McGrath after Tuesday night’s Batavia City Council meeting. 

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Surveillance cameras are scattered throughout downtown to help prevent people from vandalizing street art, said Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke.

“We’ve been able to identify certain events that have taken place because we’ve been able to capture them on video cameras,” Schielke said after the City Council meeting. 

The city this year has an active court case against three suspects for damaging the Self-Made Man sculpture on North River Street on April 24, 2011. A status court hearing for some of the suspects is scheduled for Thursday, and another status hearing will be held July 19, according to online Kane County Circuit Clerk court records. To read more about what happened, click .

“The city takes a very dim view of anybody who tries to damage our art," Schielke said. "We aggressively go after anybody who damages the art because it is seemingly bringing so much enjoyment to people."

In the last 10 days the mayor has talked to people from Rockford, Louisville, KY and Knightstown, IN who visited downtown Batavia to pose with the bulldogs.

“It really is the most unique attractions we’ve ever done as far as attracting people to come in … (it) really catches the fancy and imagination of many people," Schielke said during Tuesday night's meeting. “I don’t know how we are going to top this one.”

Some of the bulldogs have already been sold, but the remaining ones will be auctioned off on Sept. 10. For more information, click here.

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