Article content

B.C. sculptor Kevin Peters turned on the TV news Monday at noon and was startled to see an image of a one-of-a-kind eagle statue he had crafted several years ago.

At that moment, the phone rang.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Sculptor of stolen $5M solid gold, diamond-encrusted eagle statue fears it will be melted down Back to video

Ron Shore, the businessman who commissioned the piece of art, was on the other end. He wasn’t his usual self. He sounded defeated.

“I lost the eagle,” Peters recalled him saying.

Peters learned that Shore had been violently robbed of the solid-gold statue late Sunday in a residential neighbourhood in Ladner, a suburb south of Vancouver.

“That took a minute to sink in,” he said.

Official details of how the robbery went down remain murky.

There have been conflicting accounts in the media and Shore was unable Tuesday to reconcile them, saying he had received instructions from Delta, B.C., police not to comment on certain points.

Andreas Basson, pastor at the Pneuma Church in Ladner, said the incident happened after a concert at the church. A mother and daughter saw two men beating Shore and one ran away with his backpack. As the assailants drove off, Shore tried to cling to the vehicle.