AS IT WAS: Michael Lee with the makeshift “bride and groom” that was stolen from the family’s Lake Wyangan property and (right) bride-to-be April Lee at the site of a mysterious theft of a special monument put up ahead of her wedding this weekend.
IT'S a mystery that would stump Sherlock Holmes himself - why would anyone want to knock-off a couple of worthless 44-gallon drums decked out as a bride and groom?
While touring around the US earlier this year, Lake Wyangan couple Peter and Colleen Lee stumbled across a novel way of expressing their excitement at their daughter April's upcoming nuptials.
After returning home, the couple built a makeshift shrine to April and her fiancee Anthony Napoli complete with two 44-gallon drums as bodies, two smaller drums as heads, a lick of paint and a flowing veil and plonked it on the corner of their property at Boorga Road and Fawcett Drive.
But within 48 hours of it being put up, the couple had "eloped".
"We went for a walk on Wednesday morning and it was there but when we got back it had vanished," Mrs Lee said.
"We actually thought it was someone having a joke but it looks like it's been stolen."
Even more curiously, the culprits made off only with the bodies the 44-gallon drums and left the smaller drums and the veil.
"They have absolutely no monetary value - you can get them for free - so it's a bit of a mystery," Mr Lee said.
"But we won't let it spoil the wedding. We plan on putting another one up this week."
April and Anthony will tie the knot this Saturday.
