Stolen lamb is returned
Jerry Yount’s cement lamb is securely back in the fold.
The lamb, which was stolen about three weeks ago from in front of Yount’s home and business on Pines Road, was returned last week safe, but not quite sound.
The life-size white lamb is missing its right ear.
“Somewhere in the scuffle they broke off the right ear,” Yount said.
Once again the lamb is in its rightful place as part of a monument Yount designed and located along Pines Road both as a sign for his cabinet-making business and as a symbol of his religious faith.
A stone slab engraved JCCS has a double meaning — it points the way to Jerry’s County Cabinet Shop and also means Jesus Christ Coming Soon.
Yount realized the lamb was gone Feb. 10, and then figured out it was taken sometime between Feb. 4 and 9.
In a Feb. 18 article in this paper, Yount said he did not expect to see the lamb again and had made plans to get another one.
However, much to his surprise and delight, it was returned to the end of his driveway sometime after dark on Feb. 18.
“I think whoever took it read about it in the paper and something touched their hearts,” Yount said. “I’m sure it’s the same lamb — I could tell. I’ve had it for four years.”
Yount learned that the lamb was back when his daughter-in-law Annette Yount, Mt. Morris, called him on her cell phone Feb. 18 at about 7:30 p.m.
Annette and her husband Jude had been out to supper with two other couples in Oregon that evening and conversation had turned to the missing lamb.
Because one of the couples lives in Polo, they went by the statue on their way home.
As they passed by, they thought they saw a dog in Yount’s drive and slowed down in case it ran into the road.
A closer look revealed that the “dog” was actually the lamb. The couple immediately notified Annette by cell phone.
As soon as Yount got Annette’s call, he and his wife Bev drove out to the end of the driveway to check.
They pushed the lamb to the side of the drive until morning when their son Jody and a friend Gary Roos, Oregon, put it back in place.
Whoever took the lamb started to repaint it, but didn’t finish the job, Yount said.
“We saw that painting was started, maybe they were trying to make it look nice,” he said.
Because the statue is heavy, Yount is sure more than one person was involved in its theft and return.
Yount is hopeful that the person or persons responsible will also return the ear.
He said he wants to meet them and tell them why he made the lamb part of the sign and share his faith.
“Like Paul Harvey used to say ‘here’s the rest of the story,’” he said.
Addressing whoever took and returned the lamb, Yount said. “For whatever reason you brought it back, maybe you could return the ear and find out more about the real Lamb. If you do come forward, nothing will be held against you.”
