The 2-foot-tall statue was reportedly stolen from the backyard garden of the famed children's writer's 90-year-old widow. Dr. Seuss's real name was Theodore Geisel.
The property manager of the estate said Tuesday he found footprints in the yard and believed thieves had dragged the 300-pound statue to a nearby road and lifted it over a fence. The property manager last saw it Saturday. Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss's widow, noticed it gone Monday morning.
Audrey Geisel's daughter Lark Grey Dimond-Cate cast two of the sculptures. One was the lone Seuss character to reside on the family's property overlooking the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla. The other sits at the Dr. Seuss National Memorial in the author's hometown, Springfield, Mass. Theodore Geisel died in 1991 at age 87.
"I want very badly to get our little Lorax back home where he belongs," Dimond-Cate said. "Wherever he is, he's scared, lonely and hungry. He's not just a hunk of metal to us. He was a family pet."
The Lorax has enjoyed special notoriety because of the recently released film version of Dr. Seuss's 1971 environmental fable, in which the mustachioed main character speaks out for the Truffula trees against corporate greed, personified by the evil Once-ler.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
