Top picture: Lene Risholt Thorbjørnsen
The suspects
Håvard Finnseth, reporter for Studvest, recently cowrote an article about the disappearance. He considers the founders of the statue the most likely suspects, along with food inspection authority Mattilsynet, and dog lovers.
– Also, he adds, there is the possibility of an international network of statue thieves.
We set out to go over these theories one by one.
Bjørnevik: ‘Nothing to do with this crime’
Both of the founders of the statue, Tord Lauvland Bjørnevik and Eirik Lie Reikerås, claim to be out of town and therefor unavailable for a proper interview right now. However, Bjørnevik does state in a voice message to have
– absolutely nothing to do with this crime, obviously. At the night of the event I was actually in Tokio, Japan. Stealing the statue is quite impossible to do from there.
Although the constant trips abroad may seem slightly suspicious (what are those for? Seeking out new targets?) Bjørnevik’s alibi does appear to be valid.
Hønsi: ‘Fake news’
As the senior inspector of Mattilsynet refuses to be interviewed, we turn to the canteen personnel of Sammen, who are believed to have complained about the presence of the SiB-cat (Araya) in their kitchen. Some sources even claim that the canteen personnel wanted to get rid of the beloved pet.
– That’s fake news, reacts Anders Hønsi (communications adviser at Sammen), after which he goes on to state that the canteen personnel was very fond of Araya, and have always treated her kindly.
Hønsi delivers these lines with striking sincerity.
Slaatmo: ‘Just want a pair of dogs and live our lives’
Might dog people then, frustrated by the way Araya was being honoured, have stolen her statue? Not according to Oscar André Slaatmo, self-proclaimed representative of the dog lovers community.
– Us dog lovers would never commit such a heinous crime, claims Slaatmo, further explaining that all dog people want is to own a pair of dogs and live their lives.
After convincingly claiming the innocence of dog people, Slaatmo ends his statement by suggesting we look into snake people instead, as
– the snake lovers community is a pretty sketchy scene in general.
International conspiracy
A last possibility would be an international conspiracy: With statues being stolen in England, Germany, New-Zealand and India, all within ten days after the disappearance of the SiB-cat statue, this does not seem to be a far-fetched theory. Unfortunately, the museums and pubs the statues have been stolen from will not respond to Finnseth’s emails, who suspects this means something big is going on.
– The whole situation is… creepy, Finnseth shivers.
A good day
With all theories leading to a dead end, we have to leave the case for now. However, like Hønsi, we refuse to give up hope:
– The SiB-cat always turns up again. And when it does… that will be a good day.
Do you have any tips about the case? Know some sketchy snake people? Do not hesitate to reach out to us via www.bstv.no.
