A bronze statue depicting a kneeling soldier, along with a separate bronze rifle, was stolen from outside Paramount City Hall overnight, city officials say. Surveillance video captured the suspected theft at approximately 2:15 a.m. Wednesday, showing a dark-colored vehicle parked near the memorial before someone used a tool to remove the statue, exited toward the vehicle, and drove away.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Major Crimes Bureau is now investigating the theft, according to NBC Los Angeles. A city employee reported that the statue and rifle had been stolen, and per the Sheriff's Department, the combined value of the missing pieces is approximately $100,000. A city spokesperson said additional information about the week's theft is expected in the coming days. Investigators have not obtained any additional descriptions of the suspect or the vehicle seen leaving the scene.
A Memorial Already Scarred by Vandalism
The stolen statue was part of the Paramount Armed Forces Memorial, installed in November 2024 as a tribute to service members. It is not the first time the artwork has been targeted. In May 2025, someone sawed off parts of the memorial statue, stealing the helmet and rifle from the Battlefield Cross display and, oddly, leaving an old vacuum cleaner behind at the site, as FOX 11 Los Angeles reported at the time. That earlier vandalism caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage and forced the city to hold its Memorial Day ceremony around a damaged monument, a story Hoodline covered in its own report on the desecration.
At the time, Paramount city officials called the incident a shameful act of disrespect to those who risked their lives protecting the country and its freedoms, and said they were deeply saddened and troubled by what had happened. The Battlefield Cross and Soldier sculpture was designed by Alabama-based Clark Memorials and resculpted in clay before being cast in bronze, with the project overseen by the National Sculptors' Guild after Paramount selected the group in June 2023, according to the National Sculptors' Guild. The kneeling soldier was placed in a circular plaza designed to face both an American flag and a companion memorial titled “Unfolding,” created by artist Mark Leichliter for Paramount in 2007.
Part of a Wider Wave of Bronze Thefts
Paramount's losses fit into a much larger pattern of metal theft that has swept Southern California in recent years. In early 2024, thieves stripped more than 100 bronze memorial markers from Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Carson and Woodlawn Memorial Park in Compton, part of a regional surge in thefts targeting historical monuments, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The financial incentive is straightforward: recycled bronze fetches roughly $2.50 per pound and scrap copper about $3.00 per pound on the resale market, according to the same paper, prices high enough to make melting down public art profitable for thieves willing to risk it.
Law enforcement across the region has been responding with tougher penalties and cash incentives. In October 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 476, which requires scrap metal buyers to log detailed seller identification and increases penalties for receiving stolen scrap metal, according to CBS News. Under California Penal Code Section 496e, scrap dealers who knowingly possess or fail to report stolen municipal property, including recognizable bronze fittings and plaques, can face criminal charges for receiving stolen property, per Justia Law.
Rewards and Cross-Border Theft Rings
Local governments have also turned to cash bounties. The Los Angeles City Council established a reward program in October 2025 offering up to $5,000 for information leading to grand theft convictions in cases involving stolen statues, plaques, street light poles, and other municipal infrastructure, according to Patch. In March 2026, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to renew and increase similar rewards for tips leading to arrests in ongoing metal and memorial plaque thefts across South Los Angeles County.
These crimes are not confined to one city. In February 2026, law enforcement in Orange County arrested a suspect linked to a multi-city theft ring accused of stealing bronze plaques across four Southern California municipalities, CBS News reported. Whether the Paramount theft is connected to any wider ring remains unknown, and investigators have not said whether the statue was taken to be resold intact or cut down for scrap. For now, the Sheriff's Major Crimes Bureau is still working the case, and the city says more details could come in the days ahead.
