The 90th Annual Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California on Sunday, February 4, 2018. It was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for the second consecutive year. All went well at the ceremony, but something happened later at the Governors Ball that is making headlines.
Frances McDormand won this year's Oscar for Best Actress in the movie, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." She accepted the naked statue with great joy and delivered a powerful speech in which she honored all the woman nominated for an award. After she left the ceremony, she attended the annual Governors Ball.
She was sitting at a table and did not see when her statue went missing.
Even though this was the second one she had won, she didn't want to part with it. When the 60-year-old actress won her first Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in "Fargo" in 1997, there was not that much drama surrounding it. She has also received two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award.
The thief was arrested
As soon as the Oscar winner noticed that the statue was missing from the table, she notified security. The entire area was searched for McDormand's trophy. TMZ reported that security did find the man who had taken the Oscar. Wolfgang Puck's photographer on the scene stopped the man because he didn't recognize him as being an Oscar winner.
The photographer became suspicious and wondered why he was carrying the statue. The 47-year-old man was identified as Terry Bryant of Los Angeles. Authorities arrested him around 11:50 PM on Sunday and booked him on felony grand theft. He remains in jail on $20,000 bail.
Oscars 2018: Man arrested for theft of France's McDormand's Oscar https://t.co/xRsRwaWoCC
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 5, 2018
The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the theft.
They are finding out why the suspect was at the event for celebrities in the first place. Officers did discover that Bryant had a ticket to the celebration.
After McDormand got her Oscar back, she continued to have a good time at the Governors Ball while keeping her eye on the statue for the rest of the night.
Facebook video
In the brief time that McDormand's Oscar was in the possession of Bryant, he posted a Facebook Live video claiming he had just won it.
He held the statue up in the air and kissed it several times. He let the people at the ball touch it and allowed them to take pictures of him with the statue. None of them questioned him about it even though they didn't see him go on stage to accept it. Before he was captured, he said he was heading to the Vanity Fair Academy Awards party.