Alison Cork fears thieves who stole £10,000 bronze stag melted it down > 자유게시판

Interior designer and TV star Alison Cork fears the thieves who swiped her £10,000 bronze stag from outside her Knightsbridge home on Saturday night may have melted it down. 

She is offering a £1,000 reward for the safe return of the nine and a half stone statue - affectionately named Henry.

The stag had become somewhat of a London landmark, known to the capital's cabbies and as a pitstop for those visiting Winter Wonderland over the road in Hyde Park. 

The incident has left Alison's family shaken and they are even considering relocating with the interior design guru heartbroken that London has deteriorated into a city where criminals feel comfortable to use violence to 'take anything they like'. 

She told MailOnline: 'For all I know it has been melted down - it was probably stolen for the value of the metal. 




Alison Cork with the nine and reformas en zaragoza a half stone bronze statue outside her home in Knightsbridge 





Home guru Alison (pictured) is appealing for her 'majestic' and elegant' £10,000 life-sized bronze stag to be returned after it was snatched from outside her Knightsbridge home





The stag affectionately named 'Henry' had become a landmark for London cabbies and was loved by tourists and locals alike

'They have no concern for what it meant or what it stood for,' she added. 

'He was much more than a statue; he was part of the London cabbie's knowledge.'

READ MORE: Oh deer! Interior designer and TV star Alison Cork reveals how thieves stole £10,000 life-sized bronze stag from outside her Knightsbridge home



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'I got into a cab once in another part of London and asked to be taken to my street. The cabbie asked "is that where that mad woman has the stag in her garden?" And I said "yes and she's in the back of your cab right now".'

The 60-year-old - who was awarded an MBE for services to female entrepreneurship in 2023 - continued: 'It's symptomatic of something far more worrying that London is not the safe, welcoming city that it had 10 or 15 years ago.

'The sort of people who are roaming around unchecked think it's okay to take things that are not theirs, not to work for a living and even to use violence to get what they want. 

'What would have happened if I came out of my door and said "don't do that?"'

Alison believes that due to the weight of the statue, two people would have needed to have moved it into a van, so 'it would have happened in the darkness'.

She is now in the process of scouring CCTV footage from the area to try and find the thieves' vehicle.




Alison bought the life-sized statue 20 years ago as something 'fun' and 'different on the street





Alison has now launched a social media appeal to get Henry back and is offering a £1,000 reward for his safe return





Alison woke up on Sunday morning to find that the 60kg statue had been stolen from outside her home

Alison bought the life-sized statue 20 years ago as something 'fun' and 'different on the street. 

She said: 'He was so loved by the community and it was a great way of breaking the ice with the locals. 

'He unofficially became part of the London cabbie knowledge - everyone loved him. 

'Tens of thousands of tourists have taken photos with him. I even designed the front of the house to look like a Scottish mountainside with stone chippings.' 

Alison has now launched a social media appeal to get Henry back and is offering a £1,000 reward for his safe return. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the stag can contact Alison on Instagram via @alisoncork_home.




The 60-year-old - who was awarded an MBE for services to female entrepreneurship - said the ordeal had left her feeling 'very vulnerable'

She added: 'The thieves certainly knew it was valuable as it is going to cost me £10,000 to replace. 

'They are just opportunists and they know that the police are not going to come after them. 

'The police don't take it seriously as they know they are not going to get it back - they will only focus on the crimes where they think there's a chance of getting a result and this will be bottom of their list of priorities. 

'So that's why I've turned to the press and social media.'

She continued: 'It was really sweet as I put something on Instagram just because I was feeling down and I immediately had around 300 responses. 

'You know nothing from the police but 300 responses from just, lovely, lovely members of the public who were saying, 'Oh, God, no! I totally understand, something similar happened to me and I understand why you are so upset'.' 

MailOnline has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment.  


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