Found ‘Dennis the Menace’ statue not the right one

The mystery surrounding Monterey’s Dennis the Menace statue is still unsolved. The statue recently found in Florida does not belong to Monterey, according to the city.

“Even though we have determined that the statue recovered in Orlando is not the statue stolen from Monterey in 2006, we welcome this Dennis home,” said Community Services Director Kim Bui-Burton. “Monterey will always be home to Dennis the Menace, no matter where he’s been, and no matter if he is the original. Dennis is part of the Monterey family, thanks to Hank Ketcham.”

The bronze statue disappeared 9 years ago. The creator of Dennis the Menace, Hank Ketcham, worked out of a studio in Monterey and lived in Pebble Beach. Ketcham had Academy Award winning animator Wah Ming Chang sculpt the statue, and it went up in the Dennis the Menace Playground in 1988.

The statue was recently found in a scrap metal yard in Orlando. It’s believed the statue was at an Orlando hospital before that. Monterey city leaders plan to ask the hospital if they can keep it at one of Monterey’s parks.

Monterey police have been trying to find the statue since 2006, and the $5,000 reward is still on the table.