Community Corner
Olympian: Just Drop My Stolen Gold Medal in the Mail
The gold medal awarded to Olympic whitewater canoeist Joe Jacobi was stolen from an Atlanta restaurant parking lot last week.
The Olympian whose gold medal was stolen from a Midtown parking lot last week doesn't want to press charges against the person who took it. He just wants his medal back.
The gold medalist, Joe Jacobi, even created a website, StolenGoldMedal.com, with instructions on how to return it.
Last Monday, Jacobi and his wife were having dinner with their 15-year-old daughter at LaFonda on Howell Mill Road. They were taking their daughter to the airport but stopped for dinner beforehand. But someone stole Jacobi's backpack from his car, and his gold medal was inside.
Before the thief got away, Jacobi, who won the medal for whitewater canoeing in 1992, took a photo of the car that the suspect jumped into, which has been forwarded to Atlanta police.
The car is a black Volkswagen Passat with Georgia temporary tag 20295512.
Jacobi told NBC4 Washington that he carries the gold medal around because "having the gold medal doesn't do any good for me in a safety deposit box. The Olympics are meant to be shared, and this medal is meant to be shared, and I take it with me wherever I go so that people have that opportunity to touch it and hold it."
"It doesn’t matter if you’re in a low point in your life or a high point; every day you’ve got to wake up and make good choices," Jacobi said. "This is an opportunity for that person. We’re not interested in prosecuting; we’re just interested in trying to create an environment that makes it as easy as possible for that person to get the medal back to us.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Atlanta Police Department at 404-614-6544.
Image: StolenGoldMedal.com
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
