A bronze statue of a boxer, known as “The Pride of Poplar”, has been stolen from a park in east London.
The statue of Teddy Baldock was removed from its stone plinth in Langdon Park in Poplar on Sunday night, the Metropolitan Police said.
Police, who were told of the theft at 8.07pm, published CCTV images showing four suspects at the scene, all dressed in black with their faces covered.
They “wiggled” the statue free “before placing it in a three-wheel cargo bike and covering it with a high-vis jacket”, the force said on Tuesday.
No tools were seen to be used.
The suspects were last seen traveling northbound towards Bromley-by-Bow underground station, the Met added.
Detective Superintendent Oliver Richter, responsible for neighbourhood policing in Tower Hamlets, said it was “very distressing” for the community “to have a monument of a local hero treated this way.
Detectives were “working at pace to identify those responsible and will continue to follow every available line of enquiry”, he said, as he appealed for anyone with information to get in touch.
The statue of Baldock – Britain’s youngest boxing world champion – was erected in the park in 2014 following a fundraising campaign led by his grandson
A plaque on the plinth describes him as “The Pride of Poplar”.
Baldock was Britain’s youngest world champion “of the modern era”, British Boxers said on its website, adding it was “unlikely that any London boxer has enjoyed a larger following than did the popular East Ender”.
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Born in Poplar in 1907, he defeated US fighter Archie Bell for the vacant world bantamweight title at the Royal Albert Hall in 1927, aged just 19.
The only British boxer to win a world title during the 1920s, Baldock held the European Champion and British Bantamweight Champion belts from 1928 to 1931, British Boxers said.
He retired from boxing aged only 24 after 73 wins in 81 professional fights, and died in 1971.
