Thurman Thomas
Thurman Thomas Following last Sunday's embarrassing 6-3 loss to the Cleveland, the Buffalo Bills suffered another blow. Someone stole a 1,000-pound pine statue of Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas from the stadium's parking lot.

The statue was unveiled in a parking lot at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park before last weekend's game. The monument to Thomas was carved from a tree and part of an exhibit honoring trees lost in a 2006 snowstorm by Therese Forton-Barnes, the founder of Carvings for a Cause.

After the statue was missing for almost a week, it has been returned from it's temporary home in Ontario. According to police , a Canadian man and some of his friends rescued the 8 1/2;-foot statue from fans who were trying to burn it.

The
statue showed some scuff marks and charring around its feet.

The unnamed man and his group said, they "rescued" the statue from a stadium parking lot and loaded it in their truck after other tailgaters poured charcoal embers from their grill onto it.

The man said he and his group brought the statue over the Peace Bridge into Canada, even declaring it at customs as "a statue of Thurman Thomas."

He said the group intended to bring the statue back for the Bills' next home game on Nov. 1, but contacted Forton-Barnes when they heard reports of the theft on a Buffalo radio station.

Forton-Barnes said one of the men who took the statue was "very remorseful on the phone and very honest," according to the report. "He told me it was in one piece."