Bomb Returned To Rightful Owner
Published: May 7, 2005
Lou Gibson received some good news from her neighbor Friday afternoon. The bomb was back.
“I am so happy,” Gibson said. “People have been so kind these past few days.”
For the better part of the week, the 86-year-old Gibson had been putting out the call that her eccentric lawn ornament - a five-foot-tall inactive bomb - had been stolen.
While the heavy piece of metal had little monetary worth, it did hold great deal of sentimental value. The red, white and blue “bomb” was created nearly 45 years ago by Lou’s late husband George “Hoot” Gibson, a master welder.
Booker O’Neal, her next door neighbor, noticed the oddity from his window. The retired Jackson County sheriff’s deputy usually keeps a watchful eye on his widowed neighbors. He said the rocket was easily spotted from his place.
“I know enough about her place to know when something is out of place,” O’Neal said.
The “rocket” is currently in Gibson’s backyard awaiting a fresh coat of paint and soon it will be reinstalled at the corner of Giant City Road and East Walnut Street.
“We are going to put it back in the same spot,” said Gibson’s daughter, Judi Page. “And then my husband is going to weld it in good and maybe use some cement.”
Gibson and her daughter think that whoever took the “bomb” brought it back close to their home and just left it in the adjacent field so it could be recovered.
The Gibsons had offered a $100 reward to anyone who had information about the whereabouts of the missing “bomb.”
“I told Booker he had a $100 bill coming his way,” Gibson said, “but he wouldn’t take it.”
O’Neal, a survivor of triple bypass surgery, said he wanted the money donated to the American Heart Association.
“I told her to give it to a good cause,” he said. “Plus, she can’t run fast enough to catch me.”
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