Tinseltown's newest hero grabs a slew of Oscars

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Katharine Hepburn has four. Tom Hanks has two. But, for a while at least, salvage man Willie Fulgear had more Academy Awards than Kate, Tom, Woody, Meryl and Barbra put together.

Monday, March 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Katharine Hepburn has four. Tom Hanks has two. But, for a while at least, salvage man Willie Fulgear had more Academy Awards than Kate, Tom, Woody, Meryl and Barbra put together.

The 61-year-old man discovered scores of stolen statuettes intended for next weekend's awards show while searching through trash bins in the city's Koreatown neighborhood Sunday night.

"I've got more Oscars than any of the movie stars," said Fulgear, who makes a living salvaging and recycling discarded items. He may qualify for a $50,000 reward.

Fifty-five of the gold-plated statuettes vanished and were presumed stolen March 10 from a Roadway Express Inc. loading dock in Bell, the same Los Angeles-area community where 4,000 Oscar ballots were misplaced at a post office earlier this month.

The 8 1/2-pound statuettes were packed in 10 boxes and wrapped together on one palette, which weighed about 470 pounds.

Police Capt. David Powers said today that investigators checked with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and verified that Fulgear had discovered at least 53 of their missing statuettes. There were 55 Oscars in the shipment that vanished.

He said a special mark proved they were the true awards. But it is unlikely any of the awards would be returned in time for Sunday's presentation.

"If it were just a matter of recovering the Oscars, I'd say let's open them up right now. But this is a theft, a criminal investigation, and we have to proceed cautiously," Powers said.

Regardless, the show will likely go on. The academy placed an emergency order last week for dozens of replacement Oscars after the theft was discovered.

Messages left before business hours at the academy were not immediately returned today.

Police had opened some boxes and placed about 12 of the statuettes on the ground. They appeared to be in pristine condition, despite the condition of the soiled, puddle-filled parking lot.

Fulgear said he found the statuettes about 9:30 p.m. Sunday stacked beside a trash bin. The awards were still wrapped in plastic, padded with plastic foam and in individual white boxes.

Planning to move from his nearby one-room apartment, Fulgear said he literally stumbled over one award while searching for large packing boxes.

"My foot hit one. It was heavy and I opened it up. ...Everybody knows who Oscar is," Fulgear said.

He stuffed the trunk of his car with the boxes and called his 22-year-old son to help him find out what they were doing in the trash. The son called police. "I had no idea how many I had," Fulgear said. "I just knew that if I didn't get them, somebody else would."

Fulgear said he not heard the Oscars were missing.

A tall wrought-iron fence topped with razor wire surrounded the parking lot, which served a coin-operated laundry, smog-check station and grocery store.

Police did not know when the trash bins were last emptied.

Roadway Express, which shipped the statuettes from the manufacturer in Chicago, had put up a $50,000 reward to help recover the statuettes.

Company spokesman John Hyre declined to say whether Fulgear would be offered the reward. "This is still an open investigation, so I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment now," he said.

The manufacturing cost of the statuettes was about $18,000.

Fulgear said he hopes to collect the reward -- he wants to help his son put a down payment on a home.
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On the Net: http://www.oscars.org