An alleged thief accused of swiping an Irish flag bearing a family-crest from a home in Delaware County last weekend has returned the flag -- and written an apology letter to the owner.
NBC10 first brought you the story early this week after a man was caught on a home-security camera overnight last Saturday into Sunday taking the flag from the front of a house on the 600 block of Convent Road in Aston Township.
"At first he tries to unscrew it and I guess he was unscrewing the wrong one," said the flag’s owner, Mark Dougherty, after the theft.
The video shows the thief then twist the pole until it snaps. He then runs off down the street.
Dougherty and his father Paul Dougherty told NBC10 the flag bears their family crest, dating back decades.
“I was a little bit upset because of what it was,” Paul said. “It had a lot of meaning to us as a family.”
The Doughertys now have their sentimental flag back: The thief returned the flag, wrote a letter apologizing for putting the family through the distress and included $20 to fix the flag pole broken in the theft.
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Paul said the flag means a lot to his father and Mark’s grandfather.
“He flew that flag out here for years,” Paul said. “Any kind of holiday he always had that flag out. When he was buried this year we folded it up and had that on the casket.”
Before the flag was returned, the Doughertys said they weren't interested in pressing charges -- just getting their family-crest flag back undamaged.
“We just want it back,” he said. “We’re not looking to press charges or go any further with that if we can get it back in one piece.”
