The Met Police are appealing for information after a bronze statue of boxing icon Teddy Baldock was stolen from a park in east London, with the thieves leaving behind nothing but the pugilist’s boxing boots.
The statue, estimated to be worth around £100,000, was wiggled free from its stone plinth outside Langdon Park in Poplar on Sunday and placed in a three-wheeled cargo bike covered with a high-visibility jacket.
Police were notified of its disappearance at around 8pm and have obtained CCTV footage that shows four suspects at the scene, dressed in black with their faces covered.
Detective superintendent Oliver Richter said: “We understand this is a very distressing time for members of our community to have a monument of a local hero treated this way.
“I want to assure the public that our officers are working at pace to identify those responsible and will continue to follow every available line of enquiry.”
The suspects were last seen travelling northbound towards Bromley-by-Bow underground station, the force said.
Baldock, who was known as the “pride of Poplar”, turned pro when he was 14 years old. He quickly became a prominent figure, and a celebrated name in British sport.
He fought 81 matches as a professional at venues including Madison Square Garden, and remains Britain’s youngest boxing world champion after he won the bantamweight title at Royal Albert Hall in 1927 at just 19.
By his mid-twenties, Baldock had burnt out. He retired from the sport and turned to drinking and gambling, dying in poverty at 63.
His grandson, Martin Sax, who was two when Baldock died, told The Times: “I’m a mixture of upset and angry. It’s an amazing piece of art, and to think that people have stolen it, and all that’s going to happen is it’ll get melted down and they’ll get scrap value for an iconic statue in the centre of London of a British sporting hero — it’s very sad really.”
Mr Sax spent years raising the funds for the statue, which was erected in 2014.
Mr Sax was only made aware of his grandfather’s legacy after flipping through old scrapbooks.
“When he fought at the Albert Hall they said 12 buses left the East End full of people. It was sold out,” he told the newspaper. “Tragically, I suppose, when you turn professional at such a young age it takes its toll.
“I’m hoping that with all the media coverage, the statue itself might become too hot to handle, as it were.
“You know, that any scrap metal merchants might not want to touch it, in which case if it can be recovered, it can be fixed.”
Police are urging anyone with information to get in touch with the police on 101, or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 1111.
A spokesperson for Tower Hamlets Council said: “We are shocked to hear of the theft of the Teddy Baldock statue from Langdon Park. The ‘Pride of Poplar’ statue is an important part of the borough’s history and means a lot to our community.
“We are reviewing our CCTV as part of the police investigation in the hope that we can find the statue and catch the culprits.”
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