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The Everett Police Department has a new employee for the near future … and he’s one of the world’s most famous crime-fighters. A four-foot tall Batman statue can be seen gazing out of the North Precinct window.

It all started last fall, when someone stole the Batman statue out of the window of downtown during a smash-and-grab.

“It was very targeted, they knew exactly what they wanted,” said Everett Police Detective Adam Gage, who is on the case. “They didn’t even make entry into the store, it was just, reach in, grab the statue.”

Gage said no cash or other merchandise was stolen from the shop, but as an original from Funko — the iconic creator of pop culture figurines, located just down the road from Everett Comics — the statue itself is worth a pretty penny, valued at $8,000.

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It also had been a staple in the window of the small comic shop — which is why police wanted to make sure they found it.

“Even though it is just a Batman statue, it is a collector’s item that was owned by a business that has been in Everett for a while,” Gage said.

Gage said there’s a common misperception among residents that police don’t spend time on property crime.

“It comes down to just showing our care and support for our core downtown and the businesses there, sending the message that we’re going to do everything we can to try to help solve crime,” he said.

He noted that they are especially focused on this when mom-and-pop shops have had the roughest year yet.

“These small businesses that are trying to make it through this pandemic and already are going through tough times as it is — when things like this happen, it’s disheartening,” he said.

The good news is, after a few months on the case, Gage caught up to the thief … and got Batman back.

But now there was another problem — the pesky ins and outs of insurance.

“When this incident happened, they filed an insurance claim, and due to that, the insurance company won’t allow us to give it back to the business,” Gage said. “Because they had already paid them out for it.”

So while police are trying to get things figured out with the insurance company, Batman has made the top floor of the police station his home — watching over downtown Everett.

“There are some windows on one side of the building, and so it’s kind of propped up right there,” Gage explained. “It’s kind of looking out of one of the windows, down on the parking lot of our North Precinct.

Gage says he and the other officers are big fans of their new colleague, and they hope he sticks around.

“It would be awesome — we would love to keep it,” Gage said. “I just don’t know if that will fly. But yeah, it’s pretty awesome.”

For the time being, if you take a stroll downtown Everett, you just may find the Caped Crusader keeping an eye on you.