When Ryan Deskins opened Sagamore Hill, the Park Street bar named and decorated in homage to Teddy Roosevelt’s home on New York’s Long Island, he decided to cover its walls with vintage taxidermy, a nod to the 26th president’s famed passion for the outdoors.

Glassy-eyed wildlife now stand watch from all corners of the tastefully appointed bar and lounge. For Deskins, acquiring the mounts quickly became an obsession.

So when he received a text message about 11:40 p.m. on March 11 that a member of the menagerie was missing, he put on pants and rushed into work. A bartender had noticed something seemed off just before closing on one of the busiest nights in weeks.

“Where’s the lynx?”

The stuffed Canada Lynx had stood over the stairway at the entrance, its hulking paws forever perched on a hunk of driftwood. It’s a substantial piece. When alive, lynx weigh up to 25 pounds.

Deskins found the lynx for sale in Iowa for $1,470, and paid a bit more to have it shipped to Maine. When it arrived, the original fake stone base – made of foam – had broken during shipping, and one of the creature’s legs had broken in two. Deskins had to pay a local taxidermist $100 to prepare the cat for public showing.

He grew quite fond of his collection’s only big cat, and staff affectionately named it Lyndon, after President Lyndon B. Johnson.

“This is not a small thing,” Deskins said of Lyndon. “It’s several feet long and tall, and it would be cumbersome to take.”

It’s also rare, he said. Lynx now are a federally protected species, which means there aren’t so many stuffed ones, and Lyndon likely was killed years ago, perhaps before his kind were considered a threatened species in the United States.

“I can get bobcats all day long,” Deskins said. “Getting a Canadian lynx is very hard.”

Luckily, Deskins had installed a new security camera system a few weeks before the theft. Still groggy from the late hour and surrounded by co-workers, he began sifting through footage that night.

“I had an entire team of people standing there with me,” he said.

They quickly found the culprit: A patron at the bar had tucked the cat under his arm and hustled out the door.

The staff began playing back the footage to trace the man’s time at the bar. The general manager stayed at it late into the night until he found the exact moment the guy first walked in the door.

“It was so crowded that there was basically only one barstool that he could have taken when he got there,” Deskins said. “The only seat available was right in front of my main well, with the camera pointed straight at his face.”

The man sat next to a regular, a transgender woman, Deskins said. He leered at her, the patron later told Deskins.

“He was openly really rude to her, and even took a picture of her,” Deskins said.

SUSPECT ALSO LEFT WITHOUT PAYING

Adding insult to that insult and the apparent theft of the lynx, he left without paying, Deskins said.

Deskins called police that night about 1:30 a.m. – and after freezing images of his suspect, he posted them on 100 flyers and on Sagamore Hill’s social media accounts.

“We put it on social media and it just blew up, because everyone hates a thief,” Deskins said.

Two days later, an anonymous tipster came forward with a name. Deskins began googling for personal details and soon had a wealth of information.

“I had his name, address, I know his parents, where everybody works, I even know how much his mother makes. I know everything about this guy, including the day he had his wedding.”

The wedding.

Deskins found an online album of professional wedding photos from the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. He showed one image to the bar regular the man had insulted. The bar regular was positive it was a match, Deskins said.

He forwarded the name and address to Portland police. On Monday, an officer called the man, who lives in Westport, Massachusetts. The officer asked if he knew why the police were calling.

“Apparently the guy said, ‘I have a good idea, because my picture is all over social media,'” Deskins said. “I’m assuming the officer told him, ‘You need to return it now.’”

‘HE PRETTY MUCH FESSED UP’

A police spokesman confirmed that police called the man directly, and said he even came clean on the phone.
“He pretty much fessed up to it,” said David Singer, a spokesman for Portland police. “He was very embarrassed and agreed to come back to Maine.”

On Monday, the lynx was returned to police in Portland, who in exchange wrote a summons for theft to James Ganiatsos, 30.

Police returned Lyndon the stuffed lynx to Deskins, but not before snapping photos of it wearing a patrol hat, perched on a cruiser, and with Officer Brian Hollis, who delivered Deskins’ prized possession back to the bar.

Purrfect end to this kitty caper: no more missing Lynx! This morning Officer Brian Rollins returned the taxidermy animal to the Sagamore Hill Lounge after officers tracked down the suspect and asked him to return the lynx right meow. pic.twitter.com/HOq3yQ2xBk

— Portland (ME) Police (@PolicePortland) March 21, 2022

Ganiatsos, reached Tuesday at his job at a Massachusetts construction firm, declined to comment and hung up the phone.

“I gotta run,” Ganiatsos said. “Thanks for calling, though.”

Deskins said he chose to press charges to make an example of Ganiatsos.

“I’m pressing charges because it was a very, very expensive and rare item. It’s not replaceable,” Deskins said. “It’s my favorite piece of taxidermy, and I have tens of thousands of dollars of taxidermy. He would not have returned it if he had not been caught.”

Remarkably, he said, the stuffed cat was returned unscathed.

“I figured because of the way the guy violently grabbed it, it would be damaged,” Deskins said. “But it seems to be in top-notch condition.”

Deskins plans to take steps to prevent any future missing lynx. “It’s getting bolted down. You’d have to be The Hulk to get this thing up when I’m done with it.”

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