GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. -- The clock now is running out on the $1 million reward for finding the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the movie "The Wizard of Oz" and stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids almost a decade ago.
The anonymous benefactor offering the reward, an Arizona-based fan of the movie, has set a deadline of midnight Aug. 27 -- the 10th anniversary of the slippers' theft in 2005.
By putting a deadline on the reward, the benefactor hopes to possibly accelerate the process to recover the ruby slippers, said Rob Feeney, who is representing the benefactor.
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"We hope there's a recovery. That's the main goal," he said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Grand Rapids Police Department.
To receive the reward, the exact, current location of the ruby slippers must be given for the Grand Rapids Police Department to find them -- or the ruby slippers must be turned in to the police department. The ruby slippers must be in recognizable condition. The reward also has the stipulation that the name or names of the thieves must be revealed.
According to the Itasca County Attorney, the statute of limitations for charging someone with the burglary has expired, Grand Rapids Police Chief Scott Johnson said.
In addition to offering the reward, the benefactor is offering free legal counsel to whomever took the ruby slippers in order to assure that person that the statute of limitations on the crime has expired, Feeney said. The point is to encourage people to speak up if they know anything about the theft, he added.
Since the reward was announced two weeks ago, the Grand Rapids Police Department has received 40 tips -- but "no new significant information," Johnson said. One tip was a caller saying she saw the ruby slippers in a garage sale down the street from her home in Pennsylvania; another caller said the slippers were in a bar in small Missouri town.
"We've received several different tips saying they're at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.," Johnson said.
The missing pair is one of four known pairs of ruby slippers worn by Garland, a Grand Rapids native, in "The Wizard of Oz." One pair is in fact in the Smithsonian Institution, another will be going into a new Los Angeles museum and the third pair is in a private collection.
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A dive team organized by the Judy Garland Museum failed to find the missing pair in June in the Tioga Mine Pit, where they were rumored to have been sunk in a Tupperware container. The dive team found several other items, but Johnson said there's no evidence that they have anything to do with the missing ruby slippers.
The case remains open and there hasn't been any indication in the past decade of who took the ruby slippers, Johnson said.
"Somebody knows where they are. Let us know. We'd like to close this case," he said. "It remains active until we find the slippers or have information that they're no longer in this world."
