A holiday thief has taken the prized ornament from the top of the Como Zoo's conservatory, and police are asking for the public's help getting it back.

The St. Paul Police Department tweeted out Tuesday they have recovered the golden ball that had been stolen Sunday.

The ball was found after someone reported seeing it in a parking lot on the 1200 block of Lexington Parkway North, police said.

Police later tweeted an update saying the ball was found in a giant Christmas stocking.

No arrests have been made.

The Como Zoo's Marjorie McNeely Conservatory was looking a little less festive this holiday season, after the golden ball that sits atop the dome was plucked off.

Matt Reinartz, the Como Zoo's Marketing & Public Relations Director, said the theft was discovered Sunday by an employee who routinely looks up to admire the ball, called a finial. When she saw it was missing, Reinartz began going through surveillance video.

It turned out the alleged grinches were caught on camera. Five people Reinartz said appear to be juveniles, walked down the walkway and disappeared from view as if they were going inside, at about 2 a.m. on Sunday. Fifteen minutes later, one emerged and could be seen carrying the ball. The rest emerged and they could be seen running away, Reinartz said.

St. Paul police are investigating the theft, and they're asking the public to keep an eye out.

“Somebody out there knows who did it, where this is, so you know, we’ve asked the public to look in their garages," he said. "And even parents, if it is kids, look in the basement, look in the kid’s bedroom, who knows where it is.”

Reinartz said they are anxious to get the finial back - as are the 2 million people who visit every year.

“There really probably is no monetary value to it but it certainly has a historic and even a sentimental value associated with it," he said.

Climbing the ladder on the conservatory's dome is the only way to get to it, he said.

“It took a considerable amount of work for them to access that," he said. "Very dangerous leaping and climbing to get to where they needed to go but where there’s a will there’s a way.”

And there's also a will to get the finial back in its rightful place, at the top of the dome.

“If they can find Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, we can find the finial on top of the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory," Reinartz said.