Morgan the mystic unicorn returned after going missing from southern Alberta home
Sadly, the owner says someone altered the statue's horn
A metal unicorn that goes by the name of "Morgan the Mystical Unicorn" has been found after it disappeared from its station overnight in a small southern Alberta community.
The statue isn't in the best shape, however.
"We're ecstatically happy, but he needs to go to the hospital after he hits forensics," joked Dave Smeyers, who owns the unicorn that stood in the village of Delia, about 170 kilometres northeast of Calgary.
"I haven't seen him personally, but it looks like somebody cut his horn off and put it in upside down."
Standing 12 feet high (about 4.6 metres), measured to the tip of the horn, the unicorn is made of stainless steel, with gold hair, hooves and a white body. It weights 600 pounds (about 272 kilograms) and was originally fabricated by welders in Texas 15 years ago.
Smeyers and his partner acquired the unicorn and put it outside their store, Hand Hills Crafts Village Market, in order to draw people in and help with business and tourism in Delia.
"It's kind of the village mascot," he said.
And while he doesn't know who the culprit is, Smeyers guesses that it was a school prank of some sort.
"It's going to be expensive to fix as well," he said, adding that it will cost around $1,000 to get it transported alone.
"So we'll get the RCMP to go out and we're hoping we can get it all fingerprinted,"
The owners of the unicorn were alerted Morgan was missing around 8:30 a.m. Friday. They rushed to the site, only to find the unicorn gone with nothing but tire tracks and footprints left behind.
By Saturday morning, the statue was found in a field just north of the small community.
"This is a very sad prank and … it's the town's spirit that these people are playing with," said Smeyers.
Jaydee Bixby lives two doors down from where Morgan proudly stood.
"It's a pretty magical thing in our small town, we've got a small population, about 215 people," he said.
He says it's been there over a year and definitely draws people to the town who might not have visited before.
With files from Jennifer Dorozio and Rick Donkers.