Stolen ‘Wizard of Oz’ Ruby Slippers Have Crystal Connection
The famous ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” returned to their rightful home last month after they were stolen in 2005.
As it turns out, during the 13 years they were missing, they spent some time buried in a Crystal yard.
“They were taken and they literally were … they dug a hole and put the box with the slippers in them and put it in there,” said Deputy Police Chief Brian Hubbard of the Crystal Police Department. “And then sometime later, surfaced, to do whatever it was that they were planning to do with it.”
The ruby red slippers used in the 1939 film were stolen from the Judy Garland museum in Grand Rapids, Minn., in August 2005.
The FBI recovered the slippers during a sting operation in 2018, but according to investigators, they spent a portion of those 13 years hidden in the yard of Crystal resident Jerry Saliterman.
The ruby slippers were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, MN in 2005.
Saliterman has been charged with theft of major artwork.
Crystal police say this is a federal case, but the FBI reached out to them for assistance.
“And then as I started getting more information I go, ‘oh no you’re talking about THE ruby red slippers,'” Hubbard said. “So then yes, we scratch our head and go, here we are little Crystal in the middle of nowhere, we’ve got this major piece of nostalgia that’s been part of this major criminal investigation for a number of years that literally was in a back yard that we walk by, drive by all the time.”
Terry Martin of Grand Rapids pleaded guilty to stealing the slippers last fall.
Saliterman, meanwhile, will face a jury trial in Minneapolis on May 20 for his alleged role in the theft, according to the Star Tribune.
