A historic stone artefact with “sentimental value” has been stolen from a property in Perthshire.
A Quern stone – historically used for grinding food or materials – was taken from the front garden of a property in Auchterarder Road, Dunning.
Owner of the stone, Alfred Marshall, said he does not know the value of the stone, but says it carries sentimental value.
Stolen stone found in Shropshire brook
He dug it up from a brook in Shropshire that ran through his property in the 1980s and kept it since.
When moving to Dunning, he had originally planned to leave it down south, but an old neighbour decided to drive it up to him after the new residents did not want it.
The 89-year-old said: “It had a sentimental value to us as it was something we dug up at the time.
“The fact he was a very good friend of ours and went to the trouble of putting it in his car and driving all the way up here to give it to us was a nice thing.
“That is the thing that gives it most sentimental value, it reminds us of him.
“I’ve never put a great (financial) value on it as we never really knew what it was, it was only when the thing disappeared I looked into it – but I couldn’t find a value.
Stolen stone potentially Bronze Age
A statement from Police Scotland says the stone dates back to the Bronze Age, making it potentially 3,000 years old.
However, Alfred thinks it more likely dates back to the 1600s.
He said: “I don’t know the origin, I said it might be 17th century but it’s just a wild guess.
“The piece of ground it came from used to be an orchard and there probably would’ve been mills on it, I think it came from one of them.
“I looked up on the internet and found things like it from the bronze age, but I don’t think our is.”
Stone ‘not visible from street’
Police are appealing for information on the theft, between 2.15pm and 4pm on Thursday June 15, after a man was spotted moving a “very heavy object” nearby.
They say the stone was not visible from the street and are appealing for dashcam footage.
Alfred and his wife were out of the house at the time.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “This was a very heavy item that was not obviously visible from the street.
“A man was seen to be moving a very heavy object nearby at the material time, and he is described as slim build and wearing a baseball cap, shorts and a t-shirt at the time.
“He got into a dark orange vehicle which then left the area.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or information can be given anonymously through CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111.
The reference number is incident 3024 of Thursday June 17.
