A resident of Richland — a city in eastern Washington state with a population of about 60,000, known for the Hanford nuclear site and its arid climate — Colin Hooper, an avid fantasy fan and player of Dungeons & Dragons, bought an unusual item to decorate his property. It was a massive aluminum dragon statue weighing about 180 kilograms (around 400 pounds). The bright gold sculpture nearly two meters tall became a local landmark, delighting passersby. The Hoopers believed the chain that secured the dragon to the fence and its huge weight would reliably protect it from theft.
However, in May of last year their hopes were dashed: thieves sawed through the chain and somehow carried off the heavy statue. No clues or surveillance footage were found. The family resigned themselves to the loss, thinking the unique statue could not be resold and that it was gone forever. Posting missing-person-style notices seemed pointless.
Nearly a year later, Colin’s wife, Jennessa, decided to make one last attempt. She posted a photo of the dragon in a popular local Richland Facebook group. Such local groups are common in Washington towns, including the large coastal metropolis of Seattle, where they play a significant role in mobilizing the community to address local issues. That post proved to be a turning point. It drew a response from a woman who was the ex-wife of a man whose house on Haines Avenue was notorious for a pile of old junk in the yard.
Colin went to the address. Wending his way along a narrow path amid piles of old furniture, tires and other debris, he found his dragon in the back yard. But the statue had been radically repainted a bright green. Only from some scraped spots in the paint and the distinctive texture of the rock the dragon sat on was Hooper able to identify his missing piece. The joy of the discovery was immense.
But the elation quickly gave way to a new headache. How to get a one-and-a-half-meter statue weighing roughly two hundred kilograms (about 440 pounds) out through an actual maze of junk? Driving up or using a loader was impossible. The situation was made worse by tight deadlines: the house where the dragon sat was in foreclosure proceedings, and the property could be sold by new owners in three weeks. In Washington state such a process usually involves notices with set timeframes, and three weeks was likely the last window before an auction or a final decision when appeal options would be limited.
Wasting no time, the Hoopers turned again to social media, calling for volunteers for a “dragon rescue operation.” Their call did not go unanswered. On a sunny Sunday a group of seven friends and neighbors arrived on Haines Avenue. They cleared a 1.5-meter-wide path through the piles of junk and, sliding metal runners under the statue, literally inched the dragon out onto the street centimeter by centimeter. The entire operation took less than two hours.
Now the golden dragon, cleaned of the green paint, once again proudly sits in its rightful place in Richland. Locals who noticed its return are sharing their happiness on social media. Colin Hooper repeatedly says that the recovery was possible only because of the initiative of his wife Jennessa, who didn’t give up and used the power of the local online community to solve what seemed like a hopeless problem.
Based on: Man recovers his 400-pound golden dragon in Richland junkyard house