HOLLYWOOD HILLS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A boxload of handmade puppets and props from a children’s show was stolen in a mysterious heist in the Hollywood Hills overnight.
Jackie Smook, the creator of a touring children’s puppet show, said she walked outside of her Beechwood Canyon apartment on Monday morning and realized a UHaul box containing much of her life’s work had vanished.
“Panic. I took my little socks, and I ran them up and down the street, and I immediately started thinking of the things that were inside the truck,” Smook said.
Smook said she had packed the U-Haul portable moving container with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of show materials – including handmade puppets, custom props, set pieces and family heirlooms, all part of her self-created touring show called “Dilly’s World.”
“Pieces that a lot of my friends built are in that box. I mean, this isn’t just stuff that you can go buy somewhere,” she said. “It’s stuff that people put their blood, sweat and tears into to make and make really special for a project like ‘Dilly’s World’ that is literally about making people feel good and happy and seen… and someone just stole it.”
The box had traveled roughly 2,000 miles from Chicago and arrived in the Hollywood Hills on Saturday afternoon. Smook said it was parked outside of her apartment until it disappeared early Monday.
A neighbor’s surveillance camera recorded the box still on the street at 5:39 a.m., but gone by 5:44 a.m.
While Los Angeles police investigators work to locate the stolen items, Smook and her roommate have already started rebuilding pieces from scratch in hopes of keeping the show on track.
“We’re just trying to recreate what we can,” she said.
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