CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio – Teachers at an Ohio primary school are fuming after someone stole a statue from the school garden installed in 2010 to honor a teacher who passed away.

The statue, a colorful peace sign, was placed in the garden in 2010 to honor teacher Eugenia Garman, who died the year before. The project was part of a former student’s Eagle Scout project, but a thief stole the sign after the memorial garden was revitalized this summer with new plants and flowers, FOX reports.

“That piece was the whole garden. We felt it just symbolized her to a ‘T,’” Woodridge Primary teacher Denise Mottice told the news site.

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“We found this beautiful peace sign that I’d never seen like it before, very colorful which is what Eugenia was; she had colorful hair, her nails; her clothes were always colorful and it didn’t matter what color you were. Eugenia taught everybody as individuals,” she said.

Cuyahoga Falls police are investigating the robbery, which was reported by Mottice after she noticed the statue was missing last weekend.

Meanwhile, teachers and school officials are hoping someone simply returns the piece.

“It’s heartbreaking because these teachers spent so much time and energy paying tribute to their friend and their colleague. It was defeating for them because it kind of took the joy out of a very joyful project,” Woodridge principal Beth Harrington told the news site.

Mottice said she has no idea why someone would want to steal the sign.

“I was very sad and disappointed,” she told FOX. “It was done out of love for a fellow teacher and I was surprised that somebody would take something that meant so much to our school system,” she said.