Neil Preston has a knack for recovering stolen items. As Burlington’s lead urban park ranger, Preston has formed relationships with many of the unhoused folks who use — and sometimes live in — city green spaces. That’s helped him track down everything from a $30,000 Kubota tractor to a bicycle belonging to the mayor.
More recently, Preston searched for public artworks created by eight Burlington High School students. The kids made two large, colorful textiles of data visualizations that represent Lake Champlain and attached them to the Moran FRAME on the city’s waterfront on June 9. Later that week, a parent reported the artworks missing.
BHS teacher Dov Stucker called Preston, who set to work. He approached familiar members of the homeless community with photographs of the missing artworks.
“I said, ‘I’m not asking who, why, what — I don’t even care,'” Preston recalled. “‘I just think that … whoever took them doesn’t really want them, especially if they knew that they were taking them from kids.'”
No one fessed up. But a few days later, at a meeting of outreach coordinators who work with the homeless community, someone brought along the two artworks. One of the people Preston had spoken with had returned them. The group celebrated, according to Preston.
Preston declined to name the person who took the items. He said they initially denied doing so. Preston offered to charge the person’s power bank, a portable battery that can be used to juice up electronic devices on the go.
“It couldn’t have hurt that I also then turned around and immediately did something for him,” Preston said.
He thinks this person took the pieces because of their beauty.
“It’s a hell of a compliment,” Preston said.
City officials reinstalled the artworks on the FRAME — higher up, this time. They will be displayed there until October.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Art Heist? Call Neil”
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2025.
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