There are only four surviving pairs of "Wizard of Oz" slippers from the movie that turned Judy Garland into a superstar back in 1939, and one of them was stolen in 2005 from a museum in Minnesota - but a friend of the museum and obviously an avid lover of the world of Oz has now offered a $1 million to whoever brings them back.
The person who offered the reward for the "Wizard of Oz" slippers chose to remain anonymous, and only shared that they're a huge fan of the classic film and L. Frank Baum books based on Arizona.
According to CBS News, the museum that owned the famous ruby "Wizard of Oz" slippers is located in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Garland's birthplace - and, at the time the iconic shoes, a landmark of American film, were stolen in 2005, they were worth a whooping $1 million, though experts agree the sum could go up to $2 or $3 now.
The Washington Post reports that the unnamed donor offering the seven figures wants to put an end to the 10 year-old mystery of the stolen "Wizard of Oz" slippers, as the town is only inhabited by 10,000 people that all know each other, also very proud of being Garland's hometown.
Michael Shaw, the shoes' owner, loaned the pair yearly to the museum, never agreeing to put them inside the safe, being very zealous regarding the idea of nobody but him touching the slippers - then, on August 28, 2005, during the Katrina disaster, the Plexiglass surrounding the "Wizard of Oz" slippers was shattered with a baseball bat, in a job the police estimates only took about one minute.
In all, the whole 2005 theft sounds like something right out of a classic heist movie.
Gawker reports that, to collect the $1 million reward on the "Wizard of Oz" slippers, the caller has to share the exact current location of the shoes as well as the name of the thief by calling the Grand Rapids Minnesota Police Department at (218) 326-3464.
