Davey, the stolen dolphin, is back at school

CARY -- Davey the dolphin, the bronze statue stolen from a concrete pedestal at Davis Drive Elementary School last week, was returned there late Wednesday morning.

The 30-inch figure was found at the bottom of a swimming pool in the nearby Sherwood Green neighborhood last week and returned after its photo appeared in The News & Observer on Wednesday.

"He didn't make it to the beach," said Chip Mack, the school's principal.

A pool maintenance employee discovered Davey shortly after the statue was stolen. But the worker didn't know where the figure had come from or to whom it belonged.

So the 55-pound statue was stored in the pool's chemical storage room, said Ed Miller, 54, who works for Covenant Pool Care, the company that maintains the Sherwood Green pool.

After reading about the missing mascot in The N&O on Wednesday, Miller took Davey to the school.

"People were like, 'Oh my God, Davey's back!'" Miller said, describing the scene as he entered the front office. "It was pretty cool."

Davey was a gift from the school's fifth-grade class in 2008. Students went classroom to classroom accepting $3 donations, raising $325 for the statue, which cost about $400, according to Mack. Installing it cost an additional $300.

School officials say Davey was pried from its base of sculpted waves about 10:45 p.m. Aug. 17.

No arrests have been made. But administrators at Davis Drive Middle School next door say the theft was captured on surveillance cameras. In a memo to parents and students, they described the suspect as a teenager who wore light-colored shorts, a T-shirt and a hat.

He was seen walking from the middle school parking lot, talking on a mobile phone during the theft, and then running toward Davis Drive, the memo said.

The statue - normally upright on its flipper, with outstretched fins - spent Wednesday on its belly on a table in Mack's office, where it awaited a new perch.

"I plan for it to be inside ... to prevent this from happening in the future," Mack said.

Mack spread word of Davey's return to students and teachers over the school intercom as the afternoon dismissal bell rang.

Awaiting a ride home, third-grader Cheyne Mosher and fourth-grader Andrea Huynh gathered around Davey in Mack's office. Mosher inspected a cut behind Davey's left flipper, an injury sustained last year while the dolphin was mounted in front of the school.

Other than a tangle of metal near its fluke, where it used to be attached to a pedestal, the dolphin was no worse for wear.

"I actually lost sleep over this," said Paula King, a parent who helped students raise money to buy Davey. "I am absolutely thrilled and extremely happy. It's nice when there's a happy ending."

Staff writer Jack Hagel contributed to this report.