THE depiction of local folk icon ‘Mother Sally’ became a recent target of a scrap metal thief on Monday morning, when the luxurious craft was removed from the Brickdam premises of Optician Don Gomes. The ten-foot-tall creation, which captured first prize in the Queen category of the recent Mashramani Float competition, was the brainchild of local designer Maxi Williams, who created it for ANSA McAL under the Carib brand.
In its entirety, it represented an interpretation of Mother Sally wearing a giant top hat and fancy clothing.
Gomes believes that the sign was taken by a scrap metal thief because of the scrap metal which formed its frame. A nurse from The Palms geriatric institution reported seeing a man wheeling the large piece down the road in broad daylight.
The optician noted that the steel in the float was valued in excess of $50,000, with the wheels costing another $10,000 and labour $40,000. Moreover, the float also contained mesh specially imported from Trinidad and 1,000 Compact Discs to reflect light.
Plans to recycle the piece have gone down the drain, as Gomes said, “What we would have done is save it and store it again for use the next year, because those things don’t rot.”
He noted that the float, which formed an unusual display of his business sign, was a showpiece which attracted the attention of several passersby, who would stop to take photos.
The theft is the latest incident of this sort to plague the business man. Gomes said that, just recently, he was raising the concrete in his yard — a task that called for his gate to be temporarily removed – and he was fortunate to look out his window just in time to see a man struggling to fetch away both sides of the gate. The man might have gotten away with the theft had he not been greedy and wanted to fetch away both sides.
Noting that these scavenger ‘scrap metal sellers’, who now use cutting implements as part of the tools of their trade, have become as effective as termites, he recalled another experience during a cleanup of the city, when he saw a man innovatively transporting a 20-foot steel pole with the aid of a wheel chair. He had one end of the pole in his hands and another end of the pole in the chair, and was busy pushing it down the road.

Gomes joked: “Can you imagine what would happen if I had my house on four castors?
Gomes who has mayoral ambitions, wonders whether the help of the scavengers, who “have grown phenomenally” in numbers, can be solicited to clean up rather than rip apart the city.