Plaque on statue of Opie and Andy Taylor is stolen

Someone stole the plaque from a park statue in Raleigh, N.C., commemorating "The Andy Griffith Show," the kind of theft that probably never would have happened in the fictional town of Mayberry.

The plaque, bearing the words "a simpler time, a sweeter place," had only been installed in Pullen Park six months ago to mark the bronze statue depicting Sheriff Andy Taylor and his son, Opie, walking off to the fishing hole.

The rectangular plaque and its concrete setting disappeared between 2 p.m. April 28 and noon Monday, when park workers noticed it missing from in front of the life-size Andy and Opie. Whoever dug it up took the time to fill in the hole and cover it with mulch, said police spokesman Jim Sughrue.

The artwork is on permanent loan to the city from the cable channel TV Land, which has placed similar statues of Mary Tyler Moore in her TV home of Minneapolis and of Jackie Gleason's "Honeymooners" character, Ralph Kramden, in New York City.

Ali Poleman, 11, went to the park with her mother to see the statue Wednesday and said she knew how the TV sheriff would feel about it.

"He would have been mad," she said. "I'm glad it wasn't the statue."