‘Always somebody looking out for you’: Military widow’s statue returned three years after its stolen

By Sarah Fili

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    COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KETV) — A military widow and her family have a reason besides the 4th of July to celebrate this weekend.

Three years ago we introduced you to the Squires.

Thieves had stolen a statue of a concrete soldier they’d bought to honor their loved ones who served and died in war.

They said they thought it was gone for good.

Then, an email showed up in KETV NewsWatch 7’s Sarah Fili’s inbox.

“I want to find this so bad. Even if they just show up, put it back where it was, I’ll be happy with that,” said Melissa Squire in 2019.

Three years ago, Squire spoke with us, desperate to find her mother’s statue.

“It represents our family. A lot of our family, past and present, are military,” she said then.

It had been stolen from their Council Bluffs home.

Someone donated a painted one, but it wasn’t the one they had purchased to honor their loved ones.

One year, then two, three passed.

“I more or less gave up,” said Darlene Squire, a military widow.

“I didn’t think we’d find it. I figured it was gone,” her daughter Melissa Squire said.

Then, in late June 2022, a man living in Millard spotted something unusual outside his home near 128th and L streets.

“I happened to look out the window and saw a flash go by,” he said.

He saw a group of people rummaging around Millard Central Middle School’s construction site at 2:15 in the morning.

He called 911 and Omaha Police arrested three people for theft.

The three also abandoned their U-Haul pickup and the person who called the police decided to look inside.

“It was laying down in the dirt,” he said.

The man had found a statue of a soldier among other items.

His friend posted on Facebook and immediately people recognized it.

One day later, he emailed Sarah Fili four words and a photo: “I found the statue.”

She’d reported the original story, when it went missing.

Right away, Fili called the Squire family.

“I’m happy. Very happy. Yeah, teared up,” said Melissa and Darlene Squire.

The Good Samaritan doesn’t want to be recognized, so he asked KETV NewsWatch 7 to take it to the Squires.

“Nope,” Darlene Squire said as the trunk opened revealing the statue.

“Yeah, that’s not ours,” Melissa Squire said.

“Ours is really bright gray concrete,” Darlene Squire said.

First impressions after years apart can be tough.

But after a check of a video from years ago, they realized it was their statue.

“It is yours, Mom!” Melissa Squire said. “I just have to touch it up a bit but that is totally yours!”

“I figure with the time and all that, and like they said, it looks like they tried to paint it to change it, or make it not look like ours,” Melissa Squire said.

The soldier has some battle wounds.

“The cross has been dinged up, he’s lost a finger. I know it sounds weird but I think it’s kind of near symbolism, our soldiers don’t come back perfect,” Melissa Squire said.

They’re not sure if the three arrested are the ones who stole the statue in 2019. But even if not, they have a suggestion for the court.

“If the judge can actually put down some time where they had to do so many hours, I want them to go to the VA hospital. I want them to see what these soldiers go through,” Squire said.

But the best justice of all is their renewed faith in humanity. “Community do(es) stick together. No matter what’s going on they do stick together. That there’s always somebody looking out for you,” the Squires said.

And they have a message for the man that found their statue.

“Thank you so much. We are so glad. We appreciate it,” they said.

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