Insurance company blames museum for theft

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn., is caught up in a lawsuit over the theft of a pair of ruby slippers Garland wore in "The Wizard of Oz."

Essex Insurance Co. filed the suit in Minneapolis Thursday, saying it should not have to pay the $1 million claim filed for the shoe heist because the museum's burglar alarm had been deactivated at the time of the August theft, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Friday.

The suit charges the museum had no video surveillance or functioning motion detectors.

The ruby slippers had been on loan to the museum in Garland's birthplace. They were one of four pairs of slippers she wore in the classic 1939 movie.