Janie Olsen's Painting, "The Whippets", Stolen!

Sad news from my friend Janie Olsen who emailed me last night to tell me she had a painting stolen! Yesterday morning, Wednesday, December 30th, around 10:30 or so she was taking down work from her show that was in the Lake Stevens City Hall. The title of the stolen work is The Whippets. (Click on the title to go to her website to view the missing work.) She thinks it must have happened while she was loading them into her car. The back door to the car was open as they were walking back and forth during the loading. It is a small place right by the police station! When she got home and unloaded everything she couldn't find the painting anywhere! She said she remembered it was one that she put in the car first because she had plans to enter it into a competition coming up. Everyone who helped her look for it, remembered it. It was a large framed painting! The only other possibility is it could have been taken sometime while she was transferring some of the paintings from that show at the city hall to the library where she was hanging a few of them. She said she is sure she locked her car because it was full of her work. When she got home, unloaded and found it missing she drove back to both places to look for it, and with the help of others, still could not find it! She did talk to the woman from the Lake Stevens Art Commission who said she will put an article about it in their local paper. We all as artists and art lovers know how this must feel for Janie. Any information or a safe return of this painting would be greatly appreciated. Here is Janie Olsen's website and contact page, www.thestorybookstudio.com. Good luck Janie! My heart goes out to you!