High-profile panic: behind the infamous Oscars heist of 2000
Any time the Oscars and controversy are mentioned in the same breath, it tends to revolve around something that happens during the Academy Awards ceremony itself, whether it be an egregious snub or Will Smith slapping the taste out of Chris Rock’s mouth.
That certainly wasn’t the case in the year 2000, when the organisers behind the most illustrious event on the Hollywood calendar were plunged into a panic when no less than 55 of the titular statues were heisted just weeks before the cream of the industry’s crop were set to gather in their masses for the 72nd edition of the ceremony.
The company who had been tasked to make the prestigious prizes for almost two decades at that point, were placed into panic mode; with time fast running out, R.S. Owens had to replace the 55 missing accolades as quickly as possible on very short notice. Almost the entire factory team had to work overtime to ensure nobody would be going home empty-handed even if their name was read out on the podium.
Several days after the initial theft, unemployed junker Willie Fulgear informed the Los Angeles Police Department that he’d found 52 of them in a dumpster. Enjoying his 15 minutes of fame, he was thanked by the Academy by being given two seats to the Oscars and a $50,000 reward for not holding onto the stolen cargo, which promptly left him feeling more than a little starstruck.
He was being inundated with offers to write a book and sell the rights to his story, and he was blown away by the A-list knowing exactly who he was. “Arnold Schwarzenegger came up and shook my hand and said, ‘Willie, you’re a born star!’” Fulgear told Vanity Fair, a far cry from where he’d been weeks previously rummaging around in bins outside supermarkets and fast food joints.
The thieves were ultimately apprehended and charged, and another two of the Oscars were recovered, but one of them remains unfound to this day, and it’s probably quite the conversation piece for whoever currently has it. R.S. Owens could finally breathe easy, knowing that the gala wasn’t going to be remembered for all the wrong reasons, but it may have been a pointless exercise.
As it turns out, the Oscars would have been completely fine whether or not the missing 55 had been retrieved because the company always made them a year in advance. That means thieves had actually heisted from the 2001 edition and not the one that ushered in a new millennium, although shortfalls and multiple recipients of certain trophies mean it’s always handy to have a few extra to hand just in case.
The ones that were recovered by Fulgear were destroyed, though, because the Academy wasn’t going to put itself in the position of handing out reclaimed stolen goods to the best and brightest in Tinseltown. Safety and shipping protocols were changed, armed security was added to the transportation procedures, and as of yet there hasn’t been another large-scale theft that threatened to disrupt the Oscars.
