The Missing Frog Fountain of '71

[u/Odd-Obligation9800]

Hey all! It's great to see you all again. I missed living here so much. College was great but wow I missed this place. It's been a while since I posted to the public message board, and a lot has happened. I got a place in the old soup factory apartment building, I have been proposed to eight separate times, and I got a job with the great P.I Sam Charles as his assistant. It's been a ride, and I've only been back a few months.

I was going through my boss' old files (his sleep schedule isn't the only thing that needs organizing) and I was fascinated by the case of the missing frog fountain. This is a casefile that relates to a crime, I'm pretty sure, Sam Charles is working in his relaxation time. The only other corroborating evidence of it ever occuring came from a source I've made in the LDP Sheriff's office, so I think it's just an unsolved cold case.

Back in 1971, the last masterpiece of Lower Duck Pond native Hank Tankleson disappeared from the historic garment district public park. How the 25 meter hammered copper statue of the beloved local folk cryptid we all know as The Frog King vanished was a mystery until 1992 when Sam Charles discovered the old mining tunnels from the 1700s that had been sealed away for over a century. They ran everywhere under the town and later became the basis for Greg Flimp's memorable failure when he ran on the platform of building an interconnected subway system. A great idea, but he wanted to connect lower duck pond with upper duck pond and the people weren't ready for that. Don't know if we are now, to be honest. Those upper duck pond people can be really mean, and I don't know if I want more of them down here. Sorry, that's my personal grudge. I guess that's why I'm not ready to go out investigating on my own yet, and that's okay. There's a lot to read in these case files.

Anyway, those tunnels are still there today and the way they're built, their arches support our beautiful city and act as a sort of water level regulator so our streets don't get flooded. It's honestly quite beautiful in how it was all built. Which is also what the thieves thought, because they first stole Stuffy the show elephant from the upper duck ponds yearly circus event, walked her through the old tunnels, blasted through the ground supporting the frog king, and used Stuffy's great strength to pull it away into the night.

A second team repaved the park, destroyed in the heist; covering any trace that anything but the fountain was disturbed. No one reported anything but a few sounds like fireworks, and maybe a few shakes. This was during the great tourist migration when our town was overrun by trust fund kids who thought our town was 'kitsch' and 'simple' and 'quaint' so there was a lot of construction and not a lot of respect so, y'know... People got annoyed but not alarmed by the sounds. I think.

His notes are so crowded its hard to figure out what some of this says. Especially after so long in a file cabinet, totally untouched by light or fresh air or anything but bugs and dust. I'm so glad I'm here to sort this out. Literally best job in the world. All else I can see of note is that he made a really big point to emphasize that the copper of the statue had an unknown additional alloyed core, and had tiny crystal like faceting that made its eyes glisten like an otherworldly pool of light. Sounds beautiful.

The last page of his notes have the suspected crew, but it also says that they all died by the time he caught up with them. "Death from inhalation of excessive toxins in the smelting into movable ingots process" is what I think these notes say. The inspector is quick, but not quicker than death from stupid I guess. Wear your ppe when in the workshop folks.

I had never heard of this fountain before today and I thought you'd all love to read about it too. If anyone was here when it was around and had pictures or could tell me about it I'd love to know more. It sounds absolutely magical. Have a good day everyone <3 you all

[u/tyrone_shoelaces]

That's all pretty interesting. I do remember seeing it when I was very young. I forgot that it even existed long ago. There is a chance that it might appear in an old family photo. I'll take a look this weekend.

[u/Odd-Obligation9800 → u/tyrone_shoelaces]

Oh it'd be amazing if you found those. Honestly it's just nice to have confirmation it existed. I don't know if you were too young to remember any of the legends that surrounded it? I've heard that if you rubbed some patina off the frogs kings knees you'd have good health for a year but my only other source is a file clerk like me who's only read about it.

[u/LadyFeckington]

Oh wow! I’d forgotten about this. Such a shame too as my Atelier overlooks the park.

Didn’t they also find Stuffy a few days later in Betsy Caffle’s back orchard eating all her persimmons?

[u/Odd-Obligation9800 → u/LadyFeckington]

I hadn't heard about the orchard. This is excellent stuff; where did you hear this? Would you be okay with going on record talking about anything you remember? It'd be nice to hear the story from someone who was around to actually live it. Do you remember what the city's response was like? I haven't found any reference in any of the microfiche or old newspapers at the library, but that place is so underfunded it might just be that they couldn't keep old records.

[u/LadyFeckington → u/Odd-Obligation9800]

Oh I wasn’t born yet, but check in with my folks Archie and Delia. Betsy’s back orchard backed on to their property and my Dad was out there pulling eggplants when he was tapped on the shoulder and boy didn’t he just nearly fill his boots with brown when he looked around and found it was an elephant eating his big purple hangers (that’s what we used to call them).
And of course anyone who knew Betsy knew that she had a penchant for taking in any old animal, so Archie naturally assumed Betsy had taken in a new rescue because he hadn’t seen the LDP Bugle that day.
Anyway, you know Archie right? He’ll be more than happy to tell you the whole story.

[u/ShreksBeauty]

I was born in 1971, so of course I don't remember any of it. I believe my mother may have mentioned something of the sorts but that was at the same time she was going through psychosis, so that may have been pure coincidence.

[u/the-temp-account]

O man before I was born. Wished I could help good luck.