While we await good news about the return of the trophy, this reminds me of the theft of the George S. May Trophy from Western Golf Association HQ before the 1980 Western Open. The May trophy was a monster sliver cup with "hat," so big it took two people to move it. May's family gave the trophy, which originally was for May's World Championship at Tam O'Shanter, to the WGA when Tam O'Shanter closed. It was so big, it was kept in the WGA basement, down in a corner, and brought out only for the Open, Amateur and Junior, the champions of which, along with the May tournaments, were listed on the base.
In the winter of 1979, the price of silver skyrocketed. In June of 1980, WGA employees went to get the trophy to take it to Butler National and found an empty crate. (The big wooden base was still there.) The Golf police, who worked in the same building, were called in to investigate. The theft was announced and a reward was offered to smoke out the culprit. It worked, to a degree. A caller to the WGA office described the trophy correctly, saying he picked it up in a pawn shop – "not your regular pawn shop, if you know what I mean," he said.
But he didn't call back once call tracer lines were installed at WGA, and the trail went dead until just before the Western. Another caller said he'd seen a big silver trophy, in two parts (the hat was detatchable), thrown off a bridge and into the Little Calumet River in the south suburbs of Chicago late one night. He was in a boat with his girlfriend, the story went.
The WGA called the Chicago Fire Department and it sent a search-and-rescue team on a subesquent morning to poke around the murky depths, guided by WGA tournament director Marshall Dann and other officials – on the Monday of Western Open week! A nine-hour search failed to turn up the May. It may or may not be at the bottom of the Little Calumet River, or may have found its way into Lake Michigan by now. An insurance claim was paid, but the WGA has never replaced the George S. May.