NAVARRE – It must have been a strange sight – a sports utility vehicle with no tag driving along Navarre Parkway with a large pelican statue hanging from the back end. It was strange enough to prompt callers to notify the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, who stopped the vehicle and arrested four men for grand theft.
Deputies on Monday caught up with the quartet and the purloined pelican on Navarre Parkway and Candlewood Drive. The driver, Daniel Joe Fureigh, 43, said he’d just purchased the SUV and it wasn’t registered yet.
A deputy called the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and learned the pelican statue had just been stolen from the Sand Shaker Bar on Pensacola Beach. The owner said it was valued at $3,500 and he wanted to press charges.
Fureigh and three other suspects were charged in the pelican-napping. They are Michael Cary Duncan, 40; David Allen Darden, 38; and Richard A. Querney, 43. Their addresses were either redacted or not listed on the arrest reports.
The four were taken to the Santa Rosa County Jail, where each was released on $7,500 bond.
The pelican was returned to its owner.
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Four men charged in the Case of the Purloined Pelican (DOCUMENTS)
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