Mexico City police announced that they have opened an investigation into the case of a missing dinosaur — a one-of-a-kind motorized pterodactyl worth over US $100,000 — the casualty in a robbery from a traveling “Jurassic World” exhibit in a city mall last week.
The dinosaur, valued at 2 million pesos (US $108,000), was taken from the Perisur Mall in southern Mexico City overnight between July 17 and 18. Confirming the theft, the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (FGJCDMX) announced on social media that it had begun investigating the robbery, which occurred in the Insurgentes Cuicuilco neighborhood, located in Mexico City’s borough of Coyoacán.
INCREÍBLE… Roban ¡un dinosaurio!
Un pterodáctilo mecánico valuado en casi 2 MDP fue robado de la expo Jurassic World en Perisur, @Alcaldia_Coy.
Nadie tiene idea de cómo lo sacaron. El encargado del resguardo declaró que es pieza única. Ya hay denuncia. pic.twitter.com/rlbopwbOoL
— Antonio Nieto (@siete_letras) July 24, 2024
Mexican crime reporter Antonio Nieto first broke the dinosaur robbery story on the social media platform X.
Detectives from the Office of the Prosecutor questioned witnesses and examined video security systems in the exhibit area and the wider mall. Forensic investigators were also reportedly at the scene last week, but the authorities have released no further information.
Crime reporter Antonio Nieto was first to break the robbery story. He posted the news on “X” on Wednesday, writing that no one knows how the pterodactyl was removed from the mall.
Authorities have asked the public to share any information that could help with the investigation. The exhibit’s organizers, meanwhile, are studying the exhibit’s existing security measures to prevent any further incidents.
The traveling “Jurassic World” exhibition — located at the iconic mall through Sept. 29 — opened its doors on July 12, after making stops around the world in other major world cities, including Madrid and Seoul.
Ticket prices range from a hefty 693 pesos (US $37.50) to 990 pesos (US $53.60) for an all-access Fast Pass. For context, the general minimum daily salary in Mexico City is 248.93 pesos (US $13.49).
Entry includes a 45-minute show, but visitors can stay as long as they like. The giant mechanical dinosaur replicas are particularly popular with visitors.
News of the missing animatronic dinosaur has been trending on social media the past two days, with some internet users making comparisons to the Señor Frog’s caper of October 2023, in which two emblematic “mariachi frog figures” were stolen from the popular Señor Frog’s restaurant in Acapulco, only to be discovered hundreds of miles away in a Mexico City suburb in March.
Two men were seen driving away with the smartly dressed frogs in the back of a pickup truck. Despite the promising lead, law and order in the resort city at the time was focused on recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Otis, which had just slammed Acapulco a few days earlier on Oct. 25. Looting was prevalent in the city in the hurricane’s aftermath.
Authorities did eventually arrest a suspect in the case, describing him as the alleged leader of a group that calls itself Resistencia Civil Pacífica, or Pacific Civic Resistance. Prosecutors never offered further details about the organization, the suspect, or his motives, identifying him only as Manuel “N.”
With reports from Excelsior, El Financiero and N+
