Man on skateboard stole $5,500 rainbow manatee statue from Wilton Manors park

By Angie DiMichele South Florida Sun Sentinel

A man riding a skateboard stole a unique rainbow manatee statue from a Wilton Manors park, and police are still searching for him and the piece of art a week later.

Wilton Manors Police released surveillance video on Tuesday, showing a shirtless man walk up to the 3-foot-tall fiberglass manatee statue at Justin Flippen Park just before 1 a.m. June 3 and push it down from its pedestal.

The man took the statue, which is valued at $5,500 and was created to honor the late Mayor Justin Flippen, and skated away with it over his shoulder, the police department said. The man was last seen skating west on Northeast 21st Court, just across from the park.

It’s not the first time someone has tampered with art in Justin Flippen Park. In 2023, a man was arrested after he purposefully drove into a 14-foot-tall, blue glass mosaic sculpture of a bunny, titled “Thunderbunny,” that was worth nearly $300,000, the police department said at the time. After his arrest, the same man admitted to also vandalizing a $15,000 sculpture of a popsicle by another artist in nearby Rachel Richardson Park just a few days earlier.

Wilton Manors Police ask anyone who might be able to identify the man who stole the manatee statue or anyone with information about where the statue is to call Det. Plante at 954-390-2172 or submit an anonymous tip to Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.