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Like the five others in its Fox Valley herd, the nameless concrete cow that grazed in front of Elgin's Colonial Cafe was well-liked by children.
The nearly 400 pound, black-and-white heifer always accommodated youngsters who climbed on its back, a sturdy symbol of the more-than-century-old ice cream company.
So after rustlers hauled off with the beast early Sunday, employees were even more perplexed when they received a telephone call demanding a ransom for the cow's return.
"All we want is our cow back," Clinton Anderson, operations manager for Colonial Ice Cream Inc., said Monday. "From here on out, it goes inside."
Elgin police think the cownapping occurred between 12:30 and 6 a.m., when the store at 600 S. McLean Blvd. is empty.
Hours later, an unidentified man called and said to stuff $500 in a hollow tree on Kimball Street in exchange for the cow's return.
Anderson said the demand might be met - if anyone could find the tree.
"We don't know where it's at," Anderson said. "One of our loyal customers went to look for a hollow tree, but he couldn't find one."
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