The extraordinary story of the theft of 55 Oscar statuettes

The shipping company then offered a $50,000 reward to the person who found the figurines, which is exactly what happened. According to a statement from Infobae.com, an interrogated hero turned up after finding him in an unusual place, while some media outlets accused him of doubting the veracity of his action.

“The awards show is not in danger,” Academy spokesman Bruce Davis said, reassuring everyone attending the big Oscar premiere. It was March 18, 2000 and only 8 days left until the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards ceremony hosted by Billy Crystal who made the movie his favorite. American beautyWith Kevin Spacey.

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What happened next would fit into a Hollywood script. “We suspect the thieves didn’t know what was in the 10 boxes they stole, so returning it would simplify their problem and ours,” added Davis.

The RS Owen factory in Chicago was the factory that shipped metal figurines (now made in New York) taken from a loading dock by a shipping company in Bell City.

The shipping company offered the finder a $50,000 reward, and it didn’t last long. Both the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department intervened in the robbery case.

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After the attack, 52 of the 55 stolen figurines were recovered. They made an incredible appearance on March 21 of this year. While looking for boxes to ship, a man accidentally found them in a dump of a supermarket in Los Angeles, Korea Town.

Two charges of theft

The police theory was that petty criminals stole trucks without knowing what they were carrying, but when they realized they were being hunted all over Hollywood, they abandoned their contents. Hours later, the Academy confirmed the authenticity of the figurines, which were still in their original packaging.

The hero of this story was Willie Fulgear.

The lucky man who saved the Oscars at the time, Willie Fulgear, planned to move in, rummaged through a dumpster looking for boxes and found a box of 52 figurines in perfect condition, along with their crates. “When I opened it… I saw an Oscar! Everyone knows what this is!” Fulgear, who brought the boxes home first and then, contacted a local television station instead of calling police, who in turn contacted investigators when the cameras arrived at the scene.

Fulgear boasted that he “had more Oscars than any movie star.”

The Hollywood Academy has never clarified whether it provided the statuettes found at the ceremony or the stolen statuettes made counterclockwise.

Billy Crystal greeted this week’s hero from the stage at the gala night.

Billy Fulgear, Not included Oscar, who received $50,000 and was the guest of honor of the ceremony, arrived in a limousine and was greeted by the evening’s host, Billy Crystal.

He said in an interview that Arnold Schwarzenegger met him and said, “Willie, you’ve become a star.”

But a year later, in an interview with Variety magazine, he said, “I wish I could turn back time,” when he was one of Los Angeles’ junkies.

After getting a privileged seat at the premiere, which was surrounded by the biggest movie stars, Fulgear said the press started harassing and lying to him. Some media even questioned his “luck” and wondered if he was the author of the robbery.

Willie Fulgear surrounded by celebrities in 2000

Three people who wanted to sell the figurines but had to get rid of the figurines due to intensive house searches were convicted of this robbery. Each statue had a serial number (one or two of the three missing Oscars were found in a drug bust in Miami and one is still missing).

According to the Angeles Times, although they have been separated for years and the connection between the robbery and the discovery was a coincidence, one of the members of the trio turned out to be Fulgear’s half-brother. Once in Hollywood.