Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010

Missing: One neighborhood fox

At a time when Raleigh neighborhoods are trying to get rid of kid-biting, rabies-carrying foxes, others are struggling to keep the heavy, cement statue kind.

The Foxcroft neighborhood on Buffaloe Road had two fake foxes at the subdivision's main entrance - guarding the gate, if you will.

One of them has been stolen, and neighbors are up in arms.

"We thought we would make the neighborhood look a little better, and they were cute up there," said Janie Poole, who has lived in the neighborhood for about five years.

Coincidentally, the stolen fox appeared on the front page of both North Raleigh News and Midtown Raleigh News in the "Name That Place" feature about two weeks before it disappeared. It previously had been perched in its spot for two years.

Of course, correlation doesn't equal causation. And Poole and her neighbors aren't blaming the newspapers.

"I don't know if it had anything to do with paper drawing attention to it or what, but we just wish someone would bring it back," Poole said.

The foxes are relatively inexpensive - less than $50, Poole said. Neighbors bought them with money from neighborhood dues after someone in the community's women's club suggested the idea.

Poole said they're extremely heavy, which might explain why the culprit took just one.

She and the other neighborhood women urge the thief to return the statue to its rightful place.