Stolen animatronic clown found in sex offender's home

WICHITA, Kan., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Police in Kansas announced they have recovered a $10,000 organ-playing animatronic clown seven years after it was stolen from a defunct amusement park.

Wichita police said Louie the clown, the animatronic organ-playing mascot of Joyland Amusement Park, went missing about seven years ago and was officially reported stolen in 2010.

Investigators said the case was kept alive by social media interest in Louie's plight and officers served a search warrant Tuesday on the home of Damian Mayes, a convicted sex offender and a former employee of the park, which was shuttered in 2004.

Mayes is currently serving a prison sentence for aggravated indecent liberties with a child and aggravated criminal sodomy and is not eligible for parole until 2028.

Police said two people are likely to face felony charges in connection with the theft of the $10,000 clown.

"Like Lazarus rising from the dead, we have Louie the clown recovered," Greg Kite, president of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Wichita and Sedgwick County, told The Wichita Eagle. "We have been working on this for months, accumulating information, photographs and statements."