Muncie police are searching for suspects in the theft of a six-foot-tall wooden stork from Expectations Women's Health & Childbearing Center, according to police.
Certified nursing midwife Barbara Bechtel said an employee first reported the stork missing on Saturday. Soon after, several Ball State University nursing students reported they didn't see it on Thursday when they went to the center for class, she said.
Bechtel thinks the theft was a prank, she said.
"We just want him back safe and sound," she said. "Somebody would have to be stark-raving mad, and there aren't many lunatics out there."
The stork, which is nicknamed "Gregory Peck," after the actor, is used to announce births at the center, Bechtel said. A wooden baby is placed in a blue bag for boys and pink bags for girls and the bag is put in the bird's beak, she said.
"The women that are due are very upset because they want their baby announced," she said. "We have our next mother due May 2, and she is just beside herself. She said she'll have a girlfriend go stand next to the road and hold a wooden baby."
The stork was stolen about two years ago and was later found at the neurological clinic next to the childbearing center, Bechtel said.
Anybody with any information about the stork should call the center's office at 281-9497.
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