HUDSON – Hudson’s John Cannistraro woke up this past Sunday to find wooden boards strewn across his yard.
Rexy, the wire dinosaur who had sat on the corner of John and his wife Alicia’s property on Manning Street, was gone. And the fence he sat on had been damaged.
Rexy is often dressed up for various occasions and has delighted Hudson residents and students on their way to and from the nearby David J. Quinn Middle School.
His disappearance, therefore, sparked outrage for many in town. His return has prompted celebration.
“We’re going to keep doing it,” John said of their dinosaur decorations in a recent interview. “This isn’t going to stop us.”
Family searches for dinosaur
John, Alicia and one of their friends checked the Cannistraros’ Ring camera footage after they saw that Rexy was missing on Sunday.
They said a man appeared to walk by the yard and tear the dinosaur off the fence at about 3:30 a.m.
John said he was sad and angry when he realized Rexy was gone.
“It was disappointing,” Alicia said.
The Cannistraros and their friends searched for Rexy, checking dumpsters in case someone threw him away.
Alicia said they found pieces of his green mesh in the roadway near their house.
The Cannistraros shared this news on social media.
“To those who this Dino brought joy to, I hope he is found and returned so you can enjoy him once again,” they wrote on Instagram. “As for whoever stole him, I will not stop bringing joy to this town. You will not ruin my day by taking him.”
The couple asked that anyone who knew anything about Rexy’s disappearance reach out.
“I was positive that, if it was just somewhere, somebody was going to find it,” John said.
Rexy comes home
John was home on Monday when someone knocked on the family’s door. Rexy was in the back seat of their car.
“They claim that they found [Rexy] on the side of the road,” John said.
The Cannistraros were happy, but shocked, thinking that, if Rexy was returned, he would have been brought home in the middle of the night.
Rexy’s metal feet where he had been attached to his base on the fence were broken. But John has plans to fix the dinosaur up.
“It’s going to take a little bit,” John said.
Alicia said that she and John had already planned out Rexy’s Valentine’s Day costume before any of this happened. She said, though, that he may have a new outfit before that time.
“It was nice to hear all of the messages from people,” Alicia said of the community response in recent days.
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