Avista still searching for corporate shield

Someone stole two 100-year-old bronze shields off Avista Corp.’s Mission Avenue headquarters, and though the Spokane energy company tracked one down at a local salvage yard, the other is still missing.

Avista is offering a $1,000 reward for the return of the 4-foot-high ornate corporate shield adorned with the company’s original name, Washington Water Power. Cast in 1906, and weighing more than 250 pounds each, the shields were reported stolen on June 25.

“They’re part of our history,” Avista spokeswoman Catherine Markson said. “We still hope to get the other one back.”

Both thefts were reported to the Spokane Police Department, Markson said. The police received a report from a man on the street who said he’d seen someone dragging one of the shields into a 1970s blue-and-white station wagon around 5:45 a.m. on June 25, Markson said.

The witness described the thief as being a slim white man in his 20s and said other people were in the car. The witness turned in a license plate number, but it came back as a stolen car. About an hour later, a Texaco station nearby reported someone in a similar car trying to pass a bad check, Markson said.

Avista’s headquarters is at 1411 E. Mission Ave., near the intersection with Upriver Drive and across from Mission Park.

Avista employees trying to retrieve the stolen shields found one at Dickson Iron and Metal on North Dyer Road, where it had been sold for scrap. Dickson paid $83 for the shield, and will be reimbursed by Avista for that and any other expenses incurred, Markson said.

Craig Dickson, who owns the salvage yard, said a man in his early 20s came in on Saturday with his grandmother to sell the shield. Dickson said it was obvious the shield did not belong to them, but he bought it in order to return it to its owner.

The shields were bolted to the company’s building on the front and the east sides, Markson said. They were first installed on the company’s original building downtown at 825 W. Trent Ave. When Avista moved to Mission Avenue in 1958, they were moved there.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.