A large inflatable colon that was reported stolen in Kansas City, Missouri, will be returned to the University of Cancer Center today, according to officials.
The 10-foot inflatable colon, used for educational purposes, was found by Kansas City, Missouri, police at a vacant house at 7100 block of Virginia in Kansas City, Missouri, according to a KU Health Systems spokeswoman. Police got a tip and went by and found it, the spokeswoman said.
As of Monday night, no one was in custody for taking the colon, she said.
It was about 10 days ago that it was taken from a pickup truck bed in the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri.
The item was worth more than $4,000 and was used in public educational displays, and was taken out frequently to community 5K events. It shows healthy polyps and cancerous polyps, and illustrates the stages of colon cancer. The inflatable colon is owned by the Cancer Coalition.
The stolen colon attracted much media attention, and then donations came in to help replace it. Now there have been enough donations to have three inflatable colons, the spokeswoman said.
People at the KU Health Systems and also in the public wondered why anyone would take a huge inflatable colon, and speculated that perhaps they wanted to use it as a bounce house, or perhaps it was a Halloween prank. However, at this time the motive for the colon theft isn’t known.