http://www.nbc11.com/news/14230690/detail.html

Police Send Flier To Recycling Centers To Be On Lookout

POSTED: 2:31 pm PDT September 28, 2007
UPDATED: 2:59 pm PDT September 28, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- A 160-pound, 3-by-4-foot bronze plaque that sat at the foot of San Francisco's Mt. Davidson Cross has been stolen, San Francisco Police Captain Dennis O'Leary said Friday.
The giant plaque commemorated the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Turkish government from 1915 to 1918.
It was bolted to a concrete base.

Police discovered the memorial plaque had been taken on Sept. 23, O'Leary said.
Noting that the discovery was made on the day when Armenian-Americans were celebrating Armenian Independence Day, O'Leary said they haven't ruled out the possibility of a hate crime.

SF Police
"This is a very serious matter," said O'Leary. "We are considering all possibilities."
O'Leary said investigators were also considering the recycling value of the bronze plaque as a motive for the theft.
The department sent out a message and photos to all the metal recycling plants in the Bay Area, and an additional flier to police departments throughout California, O'Leary said.
The 103-foot Mt. Davidson Cross was built and inaugurated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934.
In 1997, the people of San Francisco voted to approve the sale of the cross to the Council of Armenian-American Organizations of Northern California to preserve the structure as an historic landmark.
More than $1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Turkish government from 1915 to 1918.
The plaque was installed after a decade-long legal and political battle over the constitutionality of the presence of a cross in a public park.
The case was resolved when the city of San Francisco auctioned the property to private ownership.
Mt. Davidson Park and the cross have remained open to the public.