HARPSWELL – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as evidenced by the case of a statue named “Leroy.”

Mary Shorey was so distraught after pranksters swiped the cast-iron dragon statue last week that she went on a crusade to find it.

A man who found the dragon on his picnic table was more than happy to return it, saying the statue was so ugly that he was unsuccessful in his attempts to get it off his property by giving it away.

“I’m glad to see it gone,” said Douglas Pilon with a laugh. “I tried to give it away to 10 different people, it was so hideous.”

After the theft, Shorey stopped to talk with people she saw along Harpswell’s roadsides. She also reported the theft to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department, and her story was recounted in the local newspaper.

For Mary Shorey and her husband Frank, the presence of the dragon is far more important than any decoration. It’s part of an elaborate Feng Shui scheme that has the couple’s entire property and house set up in a balanced way to keep energy circulating throughout their home.

“When Leroy disappeared, it felt like the death of the good feeling of being on Bailey Island,” said Mary Shorey, a Reiki master who moved with her husband from Massachusetts back to their native Maine two years ago.

Mary Shorey believes that the statue brings good luck to those who own it but bad luck to those who would disturb it.

Frank Shorey didn’t care for Leroy at first, but now he’s grown accustomed to the driveway sentry.

He had offered to buy his wife a new dragon, but now he is busy trying to repair the old one’s ear. He’s also planning to bolt Leroy down to his stone pedestal to prevent future thefts.

“If anyone wants it they’ll have to take that rock, too. They won’t be able to lift that rock,” he said.