Missing totem was a tribute to Petaluma woman’s late father

Suspected thieves stole a carved pole from the woman’s front yard.|

Every time Vikki James steps out of her front door in Petaluma, she is greeted by a sober testament to her dead father - a small wooden stump, deeply carved with his name in a nod to his history as an artistic woodworker.

It is also a reminder, James said, of the intricately crafted memorial totem pole that went missing from atop that stump in September.

“It’s just absolutely beautiful. It just kills me every day that I go out there and I don’t see it,” she said.

After proudly displaying the six-foot sculpture in front of her Edith Street home for 16 years, James, 56, said she is hoping the thieves who swiped the pole will have a change of heart.

She is asking for the return of the artifact no-questions-asked, and said she is also offering an unspecified reward to anyone who offers information that could lead to its recovery.

James said she has been posting fliers around Petaluma asking for the pole’s return, heartened by a story she heard of an episode two years ago in which the emotional appeals of another Petaluma resident led to the return of a front-yard manger display. She said she hoped the revelation of the totem pole’s significance as a bespoke memorial might lead to the same result.

“It just hurts. It’s so sad. It’s somewhere,” she said.

The last time James saw the Cherokee-style pole was on the evening of Sept. 30, she said. She awoke the next day to find the monument missing.

The totem pole had been something of a neighborhood attraction, the frequent subject of photographs and admiring comments from observers, she said.

She commissioned the winged sculpture shortly after her father, Norman, died 20 years ago. A fine woodworker of Native American heritage, his work included the Marin County library of George Lucas, James said.

“We were really close. He worked hard” she said.

James contacted another woodworker near her father’s former shop on the Sausalito waterfront to commission the pole, which she said cost more than $1,000.

“I knew he would appreciate that more than just having a piece of rock,” she said.

After her mother Judi died five years later, James said, she transported the ashes of her parents and the totem pole to a rural family property in Calaveras County. She placed the ashes atop the totem, letting the wind blow the remains away.

Since the pole’s disappearance, James said she has been posting fliers around town asking for its return. Yet the campaign has been a challenge, in part because James is undergoing regular chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer.

“I’m trying to put it out there,” she said, “I just feel like, if I put it out there, I might get it back.”

Police scoured the area for surveillance cameras that may have caught footage of the incident, but found nothing that could help with the investigation, said Lt. Tim Lyons of the Petaluma Police Department. The investigation remains open, but police have no current leads.

While property crimes tend to ramp up around the holidays, Lyons said the theft of the totem pole was unusual.

“This is not the property crime we typically see around this time. Usually it’s more breaking into cars, taking change, valuable things they can pawn or sell,” he said.

The rest of the yard was undisturbed, he noted.

James said she was hoping to see the memorial returned, and that she planned some changes in the event she sees it again.

“It won’t be in my front yard anymore after this,” she said.

Those with information regarding the totem pole’s disappearance can contact Vikki James at 338-3357. Tips can be submitted anonymously to Petaluma police at 855-847-7427.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)

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