This isn’t Jurassic Park. This is Independence, Missouri.
A Tyrannosaurus rex, once part of an exhibit at Worlds of Fun amusement park, now stands watch over an Independence neighborhood to the delight of its owners, nearby neighbors and children.
The owners, Marvin Horn and his wife, Danniyelle Finley, love dinosaurs and display the 10-foot tall T-Rex model in their front yard, off of North Frandsen Road. “We are moving and we decided we didn’t want to take them with us, so we decided to put them up for sale,” said Horn, referring to the T-Rex and a Velociraptor, which sold quickly and is now home in Eureka, Kansas. “No one has come up with the money yet, but I’ve had over 12,000 people look at it online,” added Horn, who is asking $1,000 for the T-Rex.
Horn said the Velocirpator, which stood about seven to eight feet tall, was a costume and a person could climb inside and walk around with the aid of a built-in monitor. “We have so much fun with him,” said Finley, who loves to find costumes for the dinosaur to wear. “When we have school buses coming through and stuff like that, you hear all of these kids oohing and aahiing, so I just love that part,” said Finley. “That’s my favorite part.”
Horn said the T-Rex weighs about 750 pounds and is about 15-feet long. He used the services of a tow truck to transport the dinosaur to their house. “People come by and they tell their grand kids to come by,” said Horn. “We have parents that bring their kids by constantly to take pictures with them.”
Finley says the couple have dinosaurs all over their house. “So, you know, we have dinosaurs in the bathroom, they’re on my desk where I work, and, you know, they’re everywhere,” said Finley. “If he got rid of the dinosaurs, then we’d have to start up with a whole new concept,” she said. “It’d be sad.”
For now, a buyer for the T-Rex has not surfaced.
“If we don’t sell him, we’ll definitely take him with us,” Horn said..
