Wichita man destroyed ‘priceless’ war cannon over $20K meth debt, affidavit says
A Wichita man charged with destroying a priceless Spanish-American War cannon last month told police he stole the artifact to pay off a drug debt after friends robbed him of $20,000 worth of methamphetamine.
Gordon L. Pierce III told police he “went to look for copper statues to steal to make money” after his drug dealer threatened to shoot him and his family for losing a pound of meth that he was supposed to sell, according to a probable cause affidavit that gives new details about the theft.
Pierce told police he spotted the teal-colored cannon at Central Riverside Park, 720 N. Nims, as he was driving around early on April 2. He said he had “no specific reason for choosing the cannon other than it was in a dark area,” the affidavit says.
Pierce told police he enlisted the help of a homeless man, whom he paid with meth and a pipe, to fastened chains around the cannon. They then smoked meth until Pierce mustered up the courage to yank it off of its granite pedestal with his Chevy Tahoe, according to the affidavit.
When he realized the 800-pound cannon was too heavy to lift into the SUV, Pierce dragged it behind the Tahoe to a friend’s house more than a mile away.
There, he spent as many as seven hours using power tools to saw it into four or five chunks that he later showed to his drug dealer to prove “that he was trying to pay for what he lost,” the affidavit says.
A neighborhood resident alerted authorities about the missing cannon on April 3. Wichita police officers were able to figure out where the cannon went by following a series of gouges and teal-colored drag marks in the road between the park and Pierce’s friend’s house.
They found the first piece of the destroyed cannon in the garage there, the affidavit says.
Police recovered the rest in Pierce’s Tahoe, parked outside his home near 21st and Amidon, after the friend told officers what had happened.
In an interview after his arrest, Pierce told police he had been addicted to meth for 20 years and got a pound of the drug to sell after he told his dealer he was hurting. But instead of selling it, he took the meth to friends who robbed him after he said he “had scored” and “they were about to get high,” according to the affidavit.
Pierce told police his drug dealer didn’t believe the story and threatened to harm him and his loved ones if he didn’t pay $20,000 for the meth.
The dealer also wasn’t happy and called Pierce “stupid” when he showed up at his house with the cannon pieces, according to the affidavit.
The city considers the war cannon priceless because it cannot be remade or replaced. When asked to estimate its value, one city staffer told police similar cannons had sold at auction for more than $100,000 — and it could be worth upward of a half million dollars, the affidavit says.
Damage to its granite pedestal is estimated at approximately $10,000.
Pierce told police he “did not have a specific plan to sell” the chunks of cannon because he didn’t have the sort of identification required to sell metal like that directly to a scrap yard, according to the affidavit.
Had he successfully sold all 800 pounds to a scrap business, he would have made only a fraction of what the cannon is likely worth — between $1,840 to $2,320 — because current scrap prices for bronze in Kansas are $2.30 to $2.90 per pound, the affidavit says.
The cannon, forged for the king of Spain in 1794, was the centerpiece of the Spanish-American War Memorial at Central Riverside Park. It was gifted to the city and installed in 1901 after being taken as a wartime trophy by American soldiers in Cuba three years earlier, in 1898. Among its unique features is an intricate filigree design of the Spanish king’s seal hand-carved into its muzzle.
The cannon is the second valued artifact or piece of artwork on public display in Wichita that has been stolen for scrap in a little more than a year. A life-sized bronze statue of baseball great Jackie Robinson owned by youth sports organization League 42 was cut at the ankles and hauled off from McAdams Park on Jan. 25, 2024. Parts were later found burned in a dumpster.
Pierce is charged with felony theft, aggravated criminal damage to property and possession of drug paraphernalia for use. He’ll have a chance to enter a not-guilty or other plea at an arraignment scheduled for May 22.
