Had we not decided to “go fishing” today, surely we would have reported on this story with the dramatic headlineBeheaded Garfield statue had physical flaws.
Now that is a straight line that lends itself to MANY different interpretations, but it seems a fiberglass statue of the portly feline located in Fort Wayne was desecrated, its head cruelly deposited in a roadside ditch. But this statue had other, more subtle flaws, flaws that may have condemned an innocent man:

“They had talked to the company that had constructed the Garfield and realized that the head wasn’t reinforced the way it was supposed to have been,” she said. “It was built well, but it was not reinforced like it was supposed to have been at that stress point.”

Prosecutors told a judge about the problem Thursday before Joseph Savarino, 23, of Wabash, was given a 90-day suspended sentence and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service and pay $200 in restitution.

Savarino pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and criminal conversion, saying he panicked after the statue’s head came off when he hugged it.

“I’m very sorry that I did it,” he said during Thursday’s hearing. “It was not on purpose.”

One wonder just WHO would have made a Garfield statue so vulnerable to decapitation…a decapitation that was the result of A HUG. Was Savarino guilty of vandalism…or just too much love given to a shoddily made statue?

Truly, this story leaves much to ponder.

UPDATE: Well since we didn’t have time to gve this story its due, gumshoe James Urbaniak has done the hard work putting the pieces together, and…it isn’t pretty.

BTE, if you Google “Garfield statue” you get a lot of pictures of James Garfield, our martyred 20th president.