Police in Chongqing Municipality are on the lookout for two large elephant sculptures weighing 200 kilograms apiece that were carefully removed and stolen from a family courtyard on January 2. The sculptures are 60 centimeters tall and listed as cultural relics. Each is worth 1 million yuan ($152,000) and served as decorative bases to support vertical beams for the home, which was undergoing renovation and not occupied at the time. A watchman discovered them missing at 9 am following a heavy overnight snowfall. Wooden blocks had been carefully inserted as substitute support bases. "It snowed the whole night, and it was unthinkable that thieves would steal the stones," Hu said.

Police arrived to investigate soon and were equally amazed. "The wooden bases match the position exactly. The thieves must have carefully measured the size and then found blocks that were an exact fit that could also bear the weight," said one awestruck cop.

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