Staff photo/Jane Howard Diane Brostom, director of the Grand Marais Area Tourism Association, accepts a stolen gull from Pine County Sheriff Deputy Daniel Kunz. Kunz brought the gull to Grand Marais Monday, October 5, 2009 after a tip from someone he had in custody led to someone who had access to it. The bird, which had disappeared in July, was part of a billboard advertising Grand Marais along I-35.
Thebird is back.
Description: Five feet tall, two feet wide at the hips, about an inch thick. White with a little gray on the wings. Yellow beak. Proud demeanor.
Thanks to the savvy social skills of Pine County Deputy Daniel Kunz, the bird is back. Kunz has a way with prisoners, and that is what opened the case wide.
Sometime in late July, the herring gull that perched on top of a billboard along I-35 in Pine County, beckoning travelers to Grand Marais, was ripped off. Literally.
On August 4, Lamar Advertising Company Account Executive Joe Jagunich wrote Grand Marais Area Tourism Association Director Diane Brostrom, saying, “…Mr. Seagull has once again been stolen…. We cannot understand how someone can climb to this height and have the equipment to remove him. Our crew bolted this extension in so well that no amount of wind or weather would be able to dislodge him from atop this billboard.”
The theft (kidnapping?) brought a storm of speculation and PR from the Grand Marais Area Tourism Association. And a new sign on I-35 that said, “Give us the bird.”
ThePine County Sheriff ’s Officetook notice.
This fall, Deputy Kunz took into custody a man who had a warrant out for his arrest on drug charges. He let the man, who is trying to do the right thing and get his life back in order, get something to eat and say goodbye to his girlfriend before he took him to jail. Marais
The man sat in jail for a while, thinking about what he could do to better his situation. He asked to speak with Deputy Kunz.
Why me? Kunz asked him. You could have talked to any officer.
Because I trust you, the man said.
Theytalked for two hours. Theman finally told him he knew someone who knew someone who knew where the bird was. He gave Kunz a lead.
Kunz did his legwork, which led him to a woman who said she would be happy to hand over the bird, although she didn’t want to get in trouble, because she had nothing to do with the theft, she said.
Kunz told her she would not get into trouble.
She handed over the bird.
On Monday morning, October 5, 2009, Deputy Kunz drove to Grand Marais with his K-9 dog Rebel and delivered the bird to Diane Brostrom at Grand Marais Area Tourism Association (GMATA) headquarters. She was thrilled.
What on earth would someone want with this bird? she asked Kunz.
Drug money, Kunz said. He believes the person who stole the bird knew of someone who collected gulls and would pay $50-60 for it, enough for some drugs.
There’s more to the story, Kunz said, but the whole crime is still under investigation, and he couldn’t say more at this time.
Before turning around and heading back to fight crime in Pine County, Deputy Kunz went out for breakfast with Brostrom, but he wouldn’t let her pay. It was against policy – something about not allowing himself to get paid off.
What is the future of the bird, which suffered some damage to its left leg? Brostrom was asked. The wheels in her head were turning already. It isn’t going back to Pine County. It’s staying home.
Lamar will be making another sign and another bird for another $1,050. The first bird atop the billboard disappeared last December and was never found. Lamar replaced it in May at no charge to GMATA. The outdoor advertising company has helped solve crimes across the nation through the messages on its billboards, many of them much more serious than this one.
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