Cardenas Bust Headed Back to Parque Mexico

Days after Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was elected mayor of Mexico City last week, a large bronze bust of his father, a former president of Mexico, was stolen from Parque Mexico, near County-USC Medical Center.

Now the bust of Gen. Lazaro Cardenas, president from 1934 to 1940, has been recovered.

Was the theft the work of outraged supporters of Cardenas opponents? Perhaps the dastardly deed of some sort of new art terrorists?

Nothing quite so dramatic. It was just a homeless man who stole the bust for its bronze content, burglary detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Division said Tuesday.

On a routine check of recycling centers in the area, detectives discovered the bust at Unico Trading, a recycling center in the 1700 block of Newton Street. Employees were about to melt down the 75-pound bronze statue, which is valued at $10,000.

Apparently, police said, a homeless man had hacked off the bust and wheeled it in a shopping cart to the center, where he was paid $40.

The bust is now back in the hands of parks officials.

Parque Mexico was founded in 1982 and features statues of well-known Mexican leaders. This is not the first time a bust has been stolen from the park.

“This is nothing,” Det. Sal Mares of Hollenbeck Division said. “Pancho Villa’s head has been taken three times. And Zapata’s head been missing twice.”