COLUMBUS, Ohio — After a Brutus Buckeye statue that normally sits outside of a well-known campus store was vandalized this weekend, Kroger stepped in with a solution.
The grocery store chain will loan its Brutus statue to College Traditions so it can have Brutus present for Beat Michigan Week.
The statue was set up Tuesday afternoon outside the store on West Lane Avenue where the old Brutus sat.
Two fiberglass stumps that were once Brutus' ankles were all that was left outside of the store after the “brutal” attack early Sunday morning.
His battered figure was moved near the counter of the store, missing a hand and with gashes across his head and body. He now sports the quote, "I get knocked down but I get up again!"
"It was a pretty brutal attack on Brutus," store owner Kelly Dawes said.
Surveillance video shows someone ripping the statue off at the ankles, kicking it down Lane Avenue and throwing it against the ground. The individual also smashed Brutus against the store's Woody Hayes statue, causing it to sustain damage as well.
Columbus police Sgt. Joe Albert said that detectives were able to find information on the suspect who was identified as a 21-year-old man. Detectives will be requesting vandalism and grand theft charges be filed against him — both are felonies of the fourth degree.