Lang
8/7/20
A local transient with a lengthy and colorful criminal history has pleaded guilty to charges that he stole, then dropped and broke, a ceramic turtle.
Arrest records indicate 52-year-old Gary Leon Duffel II stole a large stone turtle statue from Phil’s Building Supplies on Hollywood Boulevard in the early morning hours of July 13th. Just before 12:45am he dropped the turtle in the nearby Suburban BP Amoco parking lot on Keokuk Street, causing it to break. The statue was valued at $137.
Duffel pleaded guilty to a 5th Degree Theft charge and was fined $200.
Duffel has a lengthy criminal history. In 2018 he was arrested for cutting down the flag outside the Iowa City VFW hall.
In March of 2010 Duffel was arrested for urinating on the front porch of then-Iowa City City Councilor Mike Wright.
Duffel was arrested at The Nickelodeon on the Coralville Strip in January of that year after he took his clothes off and began yelling about his recent release from the Henry County Correctional Facility.
Duffel was convicted on Criminal Mischief charges in 2007 after he toppled the Irving Weber statue at the corner of Iowa Avenue and Linn Street, breaking off the arm and causing an estimated $12,000 in damages.
In 2014 Duffel was arrested after stealing a keg off of a beer truck parked at the Benton Street Delimart.