TORRANCE : Neptune Statue Found; Reward Offered for Head

They found Neptune, decapitated and handless, in a Torrance back yard. And he was a sight to see.

“Body parts were everywhere,” said a police officer who saw it all. Police were called to investigate the remains of the King Neptune statue last seen by a city employee five years ago.

The six-foot Neptune, called “Neppy” by old-timers, stood guard over Malaga Cove Plaza in Palos Verdes Estates from 1930 to 1968, when his Carrara marble legs crumbled. Neppy, a 19th-Century Italian statue, was replaced with a replica, and the original went to a potter’s field in the city maintenance yard. But one woman has missed Neppy so much that she offered a $5,000 reward for his return.

Maryanne Motley, who spearheaded a campaign to beautify Malaga Cove Plaza, started looking for Neppy in January. Now that they have the body, she’s offering the reward for the statue’s head so that he can be returned to his place at the marble fountain in the plaza.