Missing tiki found in La Conchita
Carpinteria woman returns carved stump
"Vini" the tiki is back, the curse has been lifted, and apparently nobody got hexed.
The carved wooden tiki, missing since June 21, was turned in to a radio station Friday by a Carpinteria woman who refused an on-air interview but said she found the sculpture while walking on a dirt road in La Conchita.
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Referring to herself only as Holly, the woman told radio station KKZZ-AM 1590 that she found the 225-pound tiki Wednesday. She placed it in her front yard until a friend saw an article in Friday's Star and persuaded her to hand it over, said Lisa Osborn of the KKZZ Morning Show.
"She didn't realize anyone was looking for it," Osborn said. "She said she was walking on a dirt road in La Conchita thinking about her friends that were killed in the landslide when she found him."
In January, a landslide crashed down on to the coastal community, killing 10 people.
Police have not decided whether to question the woman but plan to follow up with the radio station, Ventura Lt. Tom Taylor said Friday.
"We don't have a victim of a crime," he said. "... It's kind of a bizarre situation."
The tiki, carved over two days from what was left of a felled palm tree on California Street, was sawed off at the stump during the night of June 20 or before dawn June 21. The radio station started doing daily "tiki updates," and a $300 reward was offered.
Upon learning of its possible return, tiki artists Dustin Darrough and Adam Kuller rushed to the station.
"Now that Vini has been returned, I think the curse has been lifted," said Darrough, who along with Kuller owns the Von Tiki Trading Co., a tiki-carving business in Ventura. "I don't know if she was the tiki bandit or not. I am just glad Vini is safe."
Tiki lore in the Polynesian culture says the carved totems can possess magical powers.
The woman likely was telling the truth, Darrough said, because people who steal tikis are hexed, and the woman "didn't appear cursed in any way."
The woman walked away with $50 cash. The remaining $250 in reward money was not available at the time and will be sent in the mail, Osborn said. While at the station on Victoria Avenue, the woman was reluctant to answer questions and declined to be recorded on tape.
"She said, 'I thought it was no questions asked,' " Osborn said.
Along with Vini, the woman took her children, 4 and 2. The woman told Osborn she planned to use the money to pay her propane bill.
"She was really sketchy, but in a sincere sketchy way," Osborn said. "I don't think she stole it, she just seemed nervous."
Ventura Parks Supervisor Daryl Wagar said the tiki will go up for adoption as part of the city's annual United Way auction in November.
"I am amazed at the power of the press," Wagar said. "We had been looking all over, even putting fliers out. Then it hits the front page and -- boom -- within hours he is returned."
