Man gives stolen statues to ex for Valentine’s Day to win her back, Florida cops say

A man in Florida gave a pair of crane statues to his ex-girlfriend in an attempt to win back her affections for Valentine’s Day, a sheriff said.

The problem? He’s accused of stealing them from a woman’s yard.

A woman in Lakeland called the sheriff’s office to report two statues of sandhill cranes were missing from her lawn, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a Feb. 14 Facebook video.

They were a gift from her late husband, she told deputies, and it was very important to her to see them returned.

“Our detectives took that personally,” the sheriff said.

They started a search in the community for the crane statues and found them shortly after at another woman’s house, Judd said.

The detectives explained that the statues had been taken from another home, and the woman was “mortified,” the sheriff said.

The woman told investigators her ex-boyfriend had gifted them to her, Judd said.

The cranes were given back to the owner “just in time for Valentine’s Day,” according to the sheriff.

Investigators learned the ex-boyfriend, a 33-year-old man, rode up to the woman’s house on his bicycle and took the statues because sandhill cranes “mate for life,” the sheriff’s office said.

The man has 39 previous burglary and theft charges, Judd said.

He was charged again and taken into custody, the sheriff’s office said.

Lakeland is about 35 miles east of Tampa.