800-pound hammer stolen from California community center

A photo of the 800-pound hammer stolen from the Healdsburg Community Center.

A massive 800-pound hammer was stolen from a California community center over the weekend.

Authorities in Healdsburg, about an hour north of San Francisco, said the art piece disappeared either Friday night or Saturday morning from the Healdsburg Community Center.

The problem is no witnesses have come forward and no one has seen the hammer, which is hard to miss. The wooden handle is 21 feet long and the 6-foot tall head is made of steel and other materials, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

"We have no leads at this point. We’ve checked a lot of different locations,” said Healdsburg Police Officer Darryl Erkel. “We initially thought it might have been a high school prank.”

Investigators believe the thieves "uprooted the stand it was on and dragged it across the parking lot and probably put it on a truck using a crane,” Erkel added. “Or a group picked it up.”

Surveillance video hasn't yielded any clues.

The hammer had been on temporary loan to the Voight Family Sculpture Foundation, which sponsors putting art pieces in public spaces.

“We have for the last 12 years now put art in publicly accessible places throughout Sonoma County, 100 pieces, maybe more,” said foundation founder Judy Voigt. “This is the first time we’ve had anything like this happen.”

Healdsburg artist Doug Umkrey created the ball-peen hammer, which is worth an estimated $15,000, last year. He became inspired when he spotted a piece of metal that resembled a hammerhead.

He told the paper he wasn’t heartbroken over the theft.

“All artwork is temporary anyway,” he said. “It’s kind of amusing to me, that somebody would actually put all this energy into it — that they’d want it that much they would actually steal it ... It’s kind of nuts.”