{"id":266718,"date":"2025-03-25T23:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T23:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/25\/vandals-of-paddington-statue-were-antithesis-of-beloved-bear-judge-says\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T23:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T23:19:13","slug":"vandals-of-paddington-statue-were-antithesis-of-beloved-bear-judge-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/25\/vandals-of-paddington-statue-were-antithesis-of-beloved-bear-judge-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Vandals of Paddington Statue Were \u2018Antithesis\u2019 of Beloved Bear, Judge Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vandals<\/div>


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It was shortly after 2 a.m. on March 2, the police said, when two members of the British Royal Air Force approached a statue of Paddington Bear, sitting placidly on a park bench in Newbury, England, and holding his favorite snack: a sandwich dripping with marmalade.<\/p>\n

The men then kicked, broke apart and stole Paddington, leaving a husk of the bear still affixed to the park bench. But it turns out that they had picked the wrong bear to mess with, in the wrong place.<\/p>\n

Newbury has a special reverence for Paddington, as the birthplace of Michael Bond<\/a>, the author of the beloved children\u2019s book series about the genial Peruvian bear and his adopted family in London, the Browns.<\/p>\n

So when the men, Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, both 22, pleaded guilty to criminal damage on Tuesday, the judge had some choice words before he sentenced them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n