#10: The Case of the Missing Oscar Trophies
When: 72nd Academy Awards, 2000
Let’s be honest: if there weren’t any trophies for the Oscars, there wouldn’t be much of a ceremony either… In 2000, 55 Oscar trophies vanished from a Los Angeles loading dock weeks before the ceremony. Cue panic. But in a twist worthy of a Hollywood script, unemployed scavenger Willie Fulgear discovers 52 of the missing statues while rummaging through a dumpster behind a Koreatown grocery store.
Fulgear’s unexpected windfall nets him a $50,000 reward and two golden tickets to the Oscars. Meanwhile, the culprits are caught, though their punishment seems light for the chaos they caused. Fast-forward to 2003 and one stolen Oscar turns up in a Florida drug bust, while two remain at large.