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Shock. Surprise. Sadness.

Those are the emotions Les McMahon felt Sunday morning when he discovered a massive statue honouring deceased veterans had been stolen from a southeast cemetery garden.

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“It’s quite heavy. It would not have been very easy to remove,” said McMahon, branch manager at Mountain View Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home. “It was stolen from our Veterans’ Field of Honour.

“Within that area, this statue served as our main feature. It was the cenotaph within the cemetery.”

Police believe multiple thieves used some type of vehicle to steal the bronze monument from the veterans’ gardens at the Mountain View Funeral Home at 1515 100 Street S.E. sometime between Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

McMahon said the statue was placed in a cemetery that’s strictly for veterans and their spouses in 1990, after being built with consultation from veterans’ organizations.

“We’re greatly saddened to see it stolen,” he said. “It serves as a focal point for the families that visit.”