By: Claire Zhou

Ricky Alderete, a 45 year old man from Kansas, stole and destroyed a statue that sat outside of a baseball field in Wichita, Kansas. He has been sent to prison with a total sentence of 15 years.

Alderete was the only person who has been arrested, but detectives think more people were involved. He already had a criminal record, with listed drug charges and had already been in prison before.

The statue’s feet were the only remains of this baseball player, and pictures of this scene spread across the world. The public made many theories about this theft, that this was a hate-motivated action, but investigators shut down that conclusion because there was no evidence that backed up that claim.

There was a surveillance video that caught two figures cutting down the statue using a concrete saw in the morning on January 25th. Then it was placed in the back of a truck and investigators linked this to Alderette. A city worker later found the statue burnt to pieces and tossed in a trash can. Later, the statue was claimed to be completely unrepairable.

Investigators had reviewed text messages between Alderete and his buddies, revealing how he had told his friends about a “stolen chunk of bronze weighing 250 to 350 pounds.”

On Friday, court decided and Alderete was sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison for aggravated burglary. Also an additional 18 months for aggravated criminal damage to property