Cutter crewmen may be charged with grand theft; clown statue still missing.

SARASOTA -- The Coast Guard has determined that two crewmen from its St. Petersburg sector stole one of downtown Sarasota's clown statues.

The Coast Guard has paid $3,500 for a replacement clown to TideWell Hospice and Palliative Care, which organized the exhibit as a fundraiser.

The crewmen nabbed the 6-foot-tall statue from Gulf Stream Avenue and Main Street and took it aboard the cutter Vise, which docked overnight in Sarasota about three weeks ago.

One of them apparently told investigators he had anonymously tipped off the Sarasota Police Department that the sculpture had been left somewhere downtown.

But police have had no luck locating the clown, "Ra Ra Shish Boom Ba," spokesman Jay Frank said.

The artist who created "Ra Ra" will make a replica to be auctioned off in April.

"I'm going to try to match it," said Wende Wilkerson, who spent about 50 hours painting the original statue. "I almost took it as a compliment. It means someone liked it enough to steal it. Either that or it's going to be target practice."

The Coast Guard has yet to decide on a punishment for the two crewmen, who also face the possibility of criminal charges.

"The internal Coast Guard investigation has been completed; however, there has been no judicial punishment handed out yet," said Chief Warrant Officer Neal Feustel, commanding officer of the Vise. "What we're waiting on now is for the Sarasota Police Department to finish their investigation."

Sarasota police will recommend as early as next week that the state attorney's office charge the crewmen with grand theft, Frank said.

"We're going to let the state attorney's office decide if they want to press charges," he said. "Since they paid restitution, I don't know what the attorney's office is going to do."

In an effort to mend ties with TideWell, some of Vise's crewmen have volunteered to monitor the clown statues on New Year's Eve to help protect them from further damage.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061230/NEWS/612300385