ST. ANTHONY, Minn. - He's back.

A little worse for wear and tear, mind you, but the wooden panda bear statue that serves as mascot for St. Anthony's Wilshire Park Elementary School is back where he belongs after being stolen from his perch.

St. Anthony Police say a suspect or suspects unbolted the 5 foot tall, 100 pound panda statue from a cement slab and made off with him July 15. Captain Dominic Cotroneo says recent publicity may have scared those behind the bear-napping, and caused them to return the statue to the school.

Cotroneo says the base of the bear suffered some slight damage from the ordeal.

Police plan to look at surveillance video in coming days to see if they can figure out who is responsible for taking the statue.

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