9/20/2005, 1:14 a.m. ET
The Associated Press
XENIA, Ohio (AP) — A man convicted of stealing a 250-pound beaver statue from the city of Beavercreek was ordered to guard the 25 statues that are part of that community's 25th anniversary celebration.
Greene County Common Pleas Judge Stephen Wolaver also sentenced Michael Ledford, 18, of Beavercreek, on Monday to five years' probation and ordered him to pay part of the cost a city committee paid to put tracking devices on the beaver statues.
Ledford, who earlier this month pleaded no contest to a theft charge, will guard the statues on weekends until they are auctioned Oct. 15. He will be given a chair while on duty, but police will monitor him, officials said.
At least nine of the toothy fiberglass beaver statues have been vandalized, stolen at some point or moved since being installed in July on the streets of Beavercreek, a city of 40,000 just east of Dayton...
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