‘I’m not angry. I’m hurt’: Life-sized Colonel Sanders stolen from Sacramento area senior living complex

By Melanie Wingo

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    SACRAMENTO COUNTY (KCRA) — The disappearance of a Colonel Sanders statue Monday has left the residents of a Sacramento County apartment complex with heavy hearts, and with lots of questions.

The life-sized replica of the face behind Kentucky Fried Chicken wasn’t situated outside a fast food chicken restaurant in town.

The statue lived on Gloria Reyes’ front porch within the Vintage Woods Senior Apartments, a gated complex on Madison Avenue in Fair Oaks.

“The Colonel is about six feet tall. He’s got the white hair and the mustache and the little goatee… He’s finger-lickin’ good,” Reyes said with a chuckle.

“The Colonel,” as Reyes affectionately refers to him, is a meaningful memento she’s had for nearly 40 years. It was a gift to her, she said, from a gentleman who, himself, looked like Colonel Sanders.

Keeping watch over her current place for all 13 years she’s lived there, the colonel always “stood proud” on her porch, according to Reyes. All day. Every day. Rain or shine. Dressed to the nines with holiday-specific flair.

“I’ve got him dressed for St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Valentine’s Day, Happy New Year,” Reyes listed, as she thumbed through an album containing solely printed photographs of the Colonel sporting various looks. “He always has a smile on his face.”

Reyes told KCRA 3 that her neighbors all had positive things to say about the colonel.

“They take their pictures with him, with their grandchildren,” she said.

All that changed overnight, however.

“It was so shocking to me when I woke up,” said Reyes. “I opened the door (and exclaimed,) ‘My Colonel! The Colonel is gone!’”

Someone stole the colonel overnight, she said.

Reyes said she reported the theft to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. She also said her apartment complex has surveillance video showing the people taking off with the colonel.

KCRA 3 reached out to the management office to request a copy of the video, but did not receive a response yet.

“Why are you stealing from senior citizens who’ve worked hard and sacrificed and are now trying to live their best lives in their later years?” Reyes said when asked what she would say to the person or people responsible for taking the colonel.

She also wants them to know what he meant to her and her apartment community.

“I’ve lost something that brings joy to me and the people around me and to my family,” Reyes said. “I’m not angry. I’m hurt.”

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