By Tim Binnall
A nearly 25-year-old mystery surrounding a golden weathervane stolen from a French town has been resolved after the pilfered piece was returned by the remorseful thief behind the misguided caper. The weird case reportedly began back in April of 1999 when a sticky-fingered ne'er-do-well made off with the metallic depiction of a cockerel that had sat atop a cross in the small community of Bessan. In subsequent years, speculation surrounding the strange disappearance of the weathervane swirled in large part thanks to the work of historian Michel Sabatery, who often wrote about the odd tale. His efforts to keep the story alive were rewarded this past November when he received an unexpected package containing the stolen piece.
Although the person behind the peculiar parcel did not include any information as to the circumstances by which they came into possession of the weathervane nor where it had been for all these years, police were able to determine the sender's identity by tracking the credit card used to mail the package. Upon being visited by authorities investigating the case, the unnamed man quickly copped to the crime and recounted how he had stolen the piece during a night of drunken revelry. When he shook the proverbial cobwebs loose the following day, the thief recalled, he was so horrified by what he had done that he tucked the weathervane away in his basement and tried to forget about the entire misadventure.
The tactic apparently worked as the man says that he went on with his life while the piece collected dust in his home and it was only when he recently noticed the metallic cockerel in his basement that memories of that fuzzy evening flooded back to him and he decided to make amends for his misdeed by mailing the stolen weathervane to Sabatery. Fortunately for him, the statute of limitations for such a crime has long since passed and so he faces no criminal charges from the incident. As for the weathervane, officials in Bessan plan to re-install the piece at a ceremony in the not-too-distant future with mayor Stephane Pepin-Bonet promising that it will be "really well attached so it can't fly away again."