Friday, September 15, 2000

Tourists spend day in pen over stolen pig

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By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        There once were two tourists who tried to steal a piggy. They landed, instead, in the pokey.

Bob Kennicott and Sarah Lahti, technicians for the Big Pig Gig, return “Pigskin” to Fifth and Elm. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        About 3 a.m. Thursday the Cincinnati Bengals' theme porker was spotted gliding up the escalator inside the Regal Cincinnati Hotel. Police said two Massachusetts men — one of whom picks up stray animals for a living — tried to make it to their room with the loot.

        Their arrests were the first for accosting Big Pig Gig pigs. Others have been damaged since the public art project started in May.

        Brian Kelley and Glenn Grammer, both 26 of Woburn, Mass., were charged with felony theft and criminal damaging. They were released from the Hamilton County Justice Center Thursday night after posting bond. Mr. Grammer works for the Woburn Police Department as an animal-control officer.

        Police aren't sure what possessed the two men to unbolt “Pigskin” from his concrete platform outside the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center at Fifth and Elm streets.

        The caper came to a halt thanks to housekeeping supervisor Anthony Carson, and security employee Kurt Mintchell, who followed the men as they tried to get the pig into room 859, police said.

        “We are serious about this,” said Melody Sawyer Richardson, Big Pig Gig co-chairwoman. “This is a community project. It's for everybody; and when you steal or damage a pig, you're spoiling it for everybody else.”

       

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