About 50 koi fish are missing from San Jose's Japanese Friendship Garden, the city's department of parks, recreation and neighborhood services said Wednesday.
Department officials in an Instagram post said they have reported the stolen fish to police.
"The city is heartbroken at the disappearance of these beautiful creatures," the department said in the Instagram post.
According to officials, the koi fish have a value of about $4,000 in total.
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Some San Jose residents reacted to the news Wednesday night.
“You just have to be a very evil person to do that to a place that means something like this,” said San Jose resident Audrey Lucatero.
The koi fish were taken from the Japanese Friendship Garden in a span of two nights, along with a water pump system, according to officials.
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It left many in disbelief as they wonder why and how?
“I don’t know what you do you with that, where would you store them? and it's just crazy,” said visitor Tiffany Nguyen.
San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services said the incidents happened Friday and Saturday night and they are just two of many crimes hitting the park in the last year.
“Including stolen tools and equipment and vandalized property,” said Daniel Lazo with the San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services.
The park was built as a symbol of the friendship between San Jose and their sister city Okayama, Japan, who originally gifted them the koi fish in the 1960’s.
“Koi is actually a homophone for another word that means affection or love in Japanese so the city is definitely heartbroken at the disappearance of these living jewels,” Lazo said.
The city said from now on the Japanese Friendship Garden, which is a gated park, will have security overnight in hopes of deterring these criminals from ever coming back.
Anyone with information on the missing fish should contact San Jose police at 408-277-8900.
