A bronze plaque was stolen from a monument in Victoria Park in Kitchener.
The plaque was located at the Peace Memorial. Photos of the plaque show that it was placed at the memorial by the German-Canadian Business and Professional Association on the occasion of the park’s 100th anniversary in 1996.
City officials say the plaque was reported missing by a citizen on July 25.
Staff said the missing sticker was reported to police, but Waterloo Regional Police told CBC News they have not received that report.
“In the meantime, city staff will install a temporary plaque at the site while we work to obtain a permanent bronze replacement plaque,” city spokesman Shawn Falcao said in an email to CBC News.
The website of the German-Canadian Business and Professional Association of Kitchener-Waterloo states that the monument consists of a stone base without the bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I, which had originally stood on a base in the same place in 1896. The bust was damaged and removed from the monument in 1914; it disappeared in 1916.
“The original monument from 1896 commemorated the celebrations of the Peace of Frankfurt of 1871 here in the city and was erected to mark the 25th anniversary,” the association’s website states.
The theft of the plaque follows another case in which a plaque was stolen earlier this year. In June, the bronze plaque honouring Const. David Nicholson and Mark Gage was stolen near Parkhill Dam in Cambridge.
Nicholson was the first Waterloo Regional Police Service officer to die in the line of duty in 1998.
He was part of a rescue mission for 12-year-old Gage after the boy disappeared while swimming with some friends in the Grand River.
This memorial plaque has not yet been found.
Anyone with information about any of the missing stickers is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
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