Post #441891 by Numastar on Mon, Mar 23, 2009 7:46 AM

More Bad news for the Capitola TIKI.

This from the Santa Cruz Sentinel

CAPITOLA -- Someone took the tiki.

Capitola police on Sunday reported that the 3-foot-tall wooden totem that community members rallied behind this past fall was stolen sometime Saturday night or early Sunday from its village berth.

Capitola police Sgt. Mark Gonzalez, who was notified of the crime by a Sentinel reporter who was tipped to the theft by a community member, said it appears the tiki was carried away as there were no drag marks in the flower bed around it.

"There were 8-inch spikes drilled into the bottom and the spikes were secured in concrete," Gonzalez said. "Someone would have really had to push or kick the tiki over to remove it from the base.

"This is horrible," he added. "It's bad karma."

The tiki's initial installation this past summer created a mini tempest in the village. It was installed in July in a public flower bed at the end of Esplanade Park without city permission by Jon Nelson of Soquel. He had gotten the totem from Steve Krull, a retired police chief from Livermore and avid surfer who had bought the tiki for $300 in San Diego. Krull and Nelson are both members of the Usual Suspects, a group of longtime Capitola watermen.

But the city ordered the tiki removed as it had been installed without going through the proper approval process for public art.

Nelson at the time said the group just wanted to give the totem a good home on the beach and spread the aloha spirit, not make waves.

So the tiki was yanked, and the group members decided to get their totem installed properly. They submitted a letter to the city asking that the tiki be considered a donation of public art, then went to the Capitola Arts Commission, which recommended approval.
But the City Council in October rejected the totem, which triggered a swell of community dissent.

The council in late November reconsidered and voted in favor of the tiki's return.

"It was something the village needed to have there," Mayor Bob Begun said Sunday.

Capitolans Gayle Brubaker and her boyfriend Keith Bridges were on their morning walk around 9 a.m. Sunday when they noticed the tiki had been swiped.

"It's really a sad commentary of what some people can to affect the enjoyment of other people in Capitola," said Brubaker, who also mentioned the theft several years ago of a dolphin sculpture that also was bolted to the ground in Esplanade Park. "It's the bad juju stealing the tiki."

Brubaker mentioned that Capitola and the tiki are featured in the current issue of Sunset Magazine. She and Bridges surmise someone may have seen the article and nabbed the tiki to make a quick buck.

Whatever the reason, Gonzalez and the other tiki fanatics want the sculpture returned.

"As far as the Police Department is concerned, first and foremost, we'd like to get it back," Gonzalez said. "Second, we'd like to find the people who stole it and hold them accountable for their actions."

Gonzalez asked that anyone who knows anything about the theft to call the department at 475-4242 or the anonymous tip line at 475-2791.