It might have been the cherry on top of a rough situation for the owners of the now-defunct H.J. Mohr & Sons Co., when their iconic Santa Claus statue (they kept it up year-round) was stolen last summer.
The concrete company closed shop last year after decades in business in the village, and within a few months the 4-foot-tall plastic Santa, which stood atop the concrete hopper since 1957, was stolen in the dead of night.
Karen Richards, a principal of Mohr & Sons, told Wednesday Journal that Santa has been returned – well, it’s a different Santa, she said, newer and bigger – on May 19.
“It’s a nicer Santa than we had,” she said.
The new Santa is in a different location – now next to the big Mohr sign, which is also visible from Harlem Avenue – probably because it’s not so easy to get to the top of the hopper, Richards said.
“Whoever it is I’d like to thank them for bringing a Santa back here,” she said.
Richards was tight-lipped about the 3.29-acre concrete factory going on the market for $7 million in April, but she did reveal that there has been some interested buyers checking the place out.
tim@oakpark.com
