By SEAN YOONG, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jun 21, 7:46 AM ET
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Two college students believed to be
over-exuberant fans of "The Simpsons" stole a life-sized figurine
of Homer Simpson from a cinema, but police tracked them down and
forced them to return it Thursday.
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"This case has been solved," Mazlan Mansor, police chief of
Malaysia's central Petaling Jaya district, told The Associated
Press.
The fiberglass replica of Homer holding a TV remote control was
part of a promotional display at a local cinema for the upcoming
big-screen version of the U.S. TV cartoon series.
The exhibit included the rest of the Simpson family Marge, Bart,
Lisa and Maggie sitting on a couch at a multiplex lobby in a
popular suburban shopping mall near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's
largest city.
"Homer will be reunited with his family soon," Moo Hon Mei, 20th
Century Fox's senior marketing director in Malaysia, told the
AP.
She said the studio suspected the thieves were "passionate fans who
want to own a piece of 'The Simpsons' before the movie
opens."
Cinema employees discovered the 4-feet-tall statue had vanished
Monday morning.
Closed-circuit security cameras showed that two men carried the
statue out at about 3 a.m. and took it to the mall's parking lot,
where they put Homer in the trunk of their car and sped away.
Police tracked down the students through their car license plate
and summoned them to the police station, where they returned the
figurine unscathed Thursday, Mazlan said.
"They were students, only 21 or 22 years old," Mazlan said. "We've
released them for now, and a decision will be made later on whether
to charge them for theft."
"The Simpsons Movie" opens in Malaysia on July 26, one day before
its U.S. launch.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070621/ap_on_fe_st/odd_malaysia_homer_simpson)
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