Pacific Beach is a little darker these days.
Symbolically, at least, since Margaret Barrie, who lives in the 1900 block of Thomas Avenue, had her “Lady Liberty” stolen. Barrie, who lives in the same Pacific Beach home she grew up in, had two keepsakes – replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower – gracing her front yard. But the seven-foot-tall, lighted Lady Liberty replica was recently snatched. And the diminutive, three-foot Eiffel Tower now inhabits Barrie’s backyard, where she feels it’s safer.
The 71-year-old Barrie said she’s still in shock over Lady Liberty’s theft. So much so that she’s not certain she’ll replace it.
“I suffered a much greater loss than an object, even though she is a national icon,” said Barrie. “I experienced a loss of innocence and a loss of trust.”
Noting she has a “deep and abiding faith in the intrinsic goodness of all people,” Barrie added, “Now I may need to reconsider. At the least, I will take extra precautions about keeping my property and things that are precious to me safe.”
Barrie acknowledged she could just purchase another Lady Liberty on eBay, like the one that got purloined, but she pointed out, “I would have to chain it to a tree and lock it … and that’s totally against the meaning of who she is.”
Her neighbor across the street, an early riser, reportedly saw Lady Liberty still in her yard the day it was stolen recently at 4 a.m. But three hours later, “She just disappeared,” Barrie said.
Barrie’s first yard decoration, prior to installing Christmas lights this past year, was her Eiffel Tower.
“Around Thanksgiving, my granddaughter put it up for me as a sign of solidarity in support of Parisians against terrorism,” Barrie said. “I then thought I could surely provide a stage to our own nation’s most famous icon, the Statue of Liberty. So, in January I purchased Lady Liberty and mounted her with the help of a friend in the front yard to the east of the Eiffel Tower.
“I have to give it some thought before I purchase another one (Lady Liberty),” Barrie said, noting, “I am hoping that through the interest and kindness and generosity I have discovered on Nextdoor.com that my neighbors will help me find her.”
Barrie’s thankful that “I still have the lights on my Star Pine. It would be mighty challenging for someone to take lights off my 50- to 60-foot tree. All my neighbors love that I keep it lit all year long, not just at Christmas. Neighbors have told me, ‘I always know when I’m home because I see the lights on your tree.'”
Barrie is disconcerted that society may be drifting away from the principles embodied in the inscription on the Statute of liberty, which reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …”
“Those words have powerful meaning to me,” Barrie said. “It’s the values those words embody that inspired me to put up Lady Liberty in an election year that seems to be packed full of contention and name calling … for fellow candidates as well as Hispanics and Muslims. I think she is a shining beacon of light illuminating and enlightening our people. She is just no longer in my front yard to provide that illumination.”