{"id":109473,"date":"2025-08-01T05:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/109473\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T05:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:42:12","slug":"suni-lee-statue-stolen-from-st-pauls-phalen-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/109473\/","title":{"rendered":"Suni Lee statue stolen from St. Paul’s Phalen Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

The theft of a statue of St. Paul\u2019s gold-medal-winning gymnast Suni Lee<\/a> wasn\u2019t just a crime \u2014 it was infuriating, said the city\u2019s Parks and Rec director.<\/p>\n

Andy Rodriguez was at the ceremony, which was a surprise for Lee, when the bronze bust of her was unveiled at the Phalen Lakeside Activity Center in 2023. Lee made history with her win at the 2020 Olympic GamesThe statue of Lee was there for \u201call of her achievements and what she means to the Hmong community, and to see that tarnished \u2026 makes me very angry,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

Park staff \u201cmake the rounds throughout the day and evenings\u201d and the statue was still in place Wednesday night, according to Rodriguez.\u00a0On Thursday morning, people out for walks by Lake Phalen and park staff noticed it wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been making a mad dash to figure out what\u2019s going on ever since,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon, part of the installation \u2014 a large rock that says \u201cSuni\u201d \u2014 was found by the artist, park workers and lifeguards in Lake Phalen and pulled out, according to Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

Lifeguards linked arms for sweeps of the water to check for the statue and hadn\u2019t found it as of late Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s family, in a statement to Fox 9<\/a>, said they\u2019re \u201cdeeply saddened by the news of her statue being destroyed and removed from its original location. This senseless act of vandalism is not only heartbreaking but also a disgraceful crime. Destroying public property \u2014 especially one that holds such symbolic and historical significance \u2014 is truly deplorable.\u201d<\/p>\n

It occurred to Sen. Foung Hawj, who represents St. Paul\u2019s East Side, that Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Melvin Carter declared July 30, 2021, as Sunisa Lee Day.<\/a> He said he didn\u2019t want to jump to any conclusion, but he wondered if the theft occurring around the same date this year was intentional or coincidental.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, who said he\u2019s been in contact with Lee\u2019s family, said Parks and Rec is \u201cworking closely with police on next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statue weighs 30 to 50 pounds, would have been difficult to steal and likely required tools, said Alyssa Arcand, a St. Paul police spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently it had two steel rods connecting it, so it would have taken awhile to get it out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Police are asking anyone with information to email SPPD-eastinvestigations@stpaul.gov<\/a>. Hawj also urged people to do the right thing to get Lee\u2019s statue back where it belongs.<\/p>\n

A statue of another beloved St. Paul resident, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, was stolen<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul in 1896 and attended St. Paul Academy, which was then on Dale Street just off Summit Avenue. A statue of a young Fitzgerald, with books on his lap, had been installed on the side of the stairs leading to the front door of the old school, now the Academy Professional Building.<\/p>\n

Police announced in February that they\u2019d\u00a0recovered parts of the bronze statue<\/a>, but the head was missing.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 31, 2025 at 3:19 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The theft of a statue of St. Paul\u2019s gold-medal-winning gymnast Suni Lee wasn\u2019t just a crime \u2014 it…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1037,648,1032,4219,63671,1033,171,50,3777,17636,69741,1072,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-109473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-crime-public-safety","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-olympics","17":"tag-st-paul","18":"tag-sunisa-lee","19":"tag-things-to-do","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114951916300782569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}