An Alberta man is hoping to find a 317-kilogram church bell that was stolen from his family farm southwest of Edmonton.
Bob Bell says he got it three decades ago in exchange for a donation he made to a Moravian church in the city.
He says someone rung the bell at the church for 40 years, but it got a crack in it, so it was being used as a flower pot.
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Bell says he displayed the bell on the roof of his car dealership in Camrose and even had a contest to guess how much it weighed.
When he sold the dealership in 2008, the bell was moved to a farm south of Calmar, Alta., that’s been in Bell’s family for more than a century.
RCMP believe the bell was stolen from the spot known as “Bell’s Corner” between last Thursday and Saturday and are asking the public to report anything suspicious.
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The bell is so heavy that Bell figures the thieves must have used farm machinery to take it.
“They would have had to have had a picker because two guys or four guys, I don’t think would be able to lift it,” he said.
“I always wondered if somebody would take it some time and sure as heck they did.”
