The winner of this issue's contest is Property Exhibit Supervisor Tom Chambers, Halifax Regional Police, Nova Scotia, Canada. Tom e-mailed saying that he enjoyed the IAPE class he attended in Hamilton. He also enclosed this digital photo of a rather unique gargoyle as an entry for "I've got something you don't have." He became a resident of their Property Room as the result of a fraud investigation, and seems to be right at home. As you can see, the staff has given him an appropriate storage location inside his new residence. 

The balance of the entries are honorary ones pulled from various news sources. We don't know who the Property Officers for these cases were, but you (or at least almost all of you) can be pleased that you weren't hosting these "high-profile" items. 

Writer Leah Garchik did a hilarious article under the headline The Virginia crime beat in the March 10, 2003 issue of The San Francisco Chronicle. Although we had to edit out her comedic commentary (the best part), here are the facts. Authorities in Richmond, VA are resting easier now that Cher's braided hairpiece has been returned to its rightful place, which is sometimes Cher's head but for the present is the police evidence room. 

A woman walked into a Richmond police station on Tuesday and turned in the wig, which had disappeared from the singer's wardrobe room during a Feb. 25 concert in Richmond. The wig was teal and black and was said to be worth between $8,000 and $10,000. It had been worn by Cher for the song "All or Nothing," then left in an unlocked room, whence it was apparently filched. 

There are two suspects in the case: a man who had been heard boasting about having the wig, and a woman to whom the man said he'd given it. Although there is no report yet that they have been charged, the manager of the Richmond Coliseum said the bad guys will be prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law."

In another corner of our nation, writer Tere Figueras had the headline Stolen Oscar discovered in local drug case in The Miami Herald on June 14, 2003. In a plot twist that marries a Hollywood whodunit with the seamy South Florida drug trade, FBI agents stumbled upon a stolen Oscar statuette. 

The long-lost golden boy-one of 55 statuettes stolen just days before the 2000 Academy Awards from a loading dock in Los Angeles - was found in Broward County during a narcotics investigation, said an FBI spokeswoman. All but three of the 13 - inch statuettes were recovered before the 2000 awards show. The whereabouts of the two remaining statuettes, which cost about $400 to manufacture, is still a mystery. 

The Hollywood icon is now safely stored in the FBI's evidence room in North Miami Beach along with seized weapons, computers and boxes of documents. And the Oscar goes to ... Well, back to L.A., as soon as the FBI is done with it. Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said that "If Oscar was involved in a drug bust, I'm sure we can confirm he was just a hostage." 

The January 23, 2003 Los Angeles Times ran a article headlined 11 Are Accused of Killing Hundreds of Bears. In a series of early morning raids across the Central Valley and Central Coast Wednesday, state wildlife agents arrested 11 men accused of illegally killing hundreds of black bears, sometimes "shooting anything they could," including deer, bobcats and mountain lions, according to officials. They said the poachers had operated in California for the last several years. Flanked by evidence - a dozen skulls. several skins and a mounted bear cub - California Department of Fish and Game officials speaking at a Wednesday afternoon news conference in Bakersfield, described the operation as the largest bear-poaching bust in California in more than 20 years. 

And if you thought we couldn't get lower than poaching, try out an article headlined Live decoy bags hunters by Joe Macaluso in the January 12, 2003 Capital City Press Sunday Advocate in Baton Rouge, LA.

About 20 years ago, a waterfowl biologist demonstrated the effectiveness of a live mallard hen, on wild ducks. The wild birds aloft were looking for a place to land and never stopped coming in. The tactic was quickly outlawed by all state agencies, and the U.S. and Canadian Fish and Wildlife Services. 

Near New Orleans, three hunters were ticketed for hunting ducks with a live decoy, which poses a problem for the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' Enforcement Division. Their Evidence Locker is something to see. There are deer skins, antlers, pelts of all shapes and sizes, alligator heads and skins, fish, ammo (guns are stored in a vault), some fish (usually kept to show the catch for an alleged violator was undersized), and almost every type of outdoor equipment.

Now, there's a live duck, one that quacks lots, and demands to be fed several times a day. And soon it will make for an unusual day in the New Orleans Federal Courthouse.