But students were thrilled to return to school on Wednesday, April 27 and find Ziggle Zaggle waiting for them. 

The theft of the statue, which had enjoyed pride of place in the school’s hallway, occurred during a break-in last year in which the school was vandalised and other equipment was stolen. 

Zig Zag Public School administrative manager Tracy Dewar said the students “were over the moon” to have him back.

“In their breaks they were climbing over him and saying, 'Let's go see the rhino!'” she said. 

“They love him, I think it's a sense of ownership. The rhino was more important than anything that was lost because he couldn't be replaced, they worked on him themselves."

The statue had been built by students and decorated in Zig Zag’s distinctive colours. 

It were these vivid colours that led to the rhino’s discovery last week, Lithgow Police Sergeant Darryl Goodwin said.  

An 18-year-old 4WD enthusiast was driving in a remote part of Newnes State Forest on Wednesday, April 19 when he made an unusual find; a yellow rhino statue under a tree. 

“He went home and was talking to his Nan about it at dinner, you know, ‘You wouldn’t believe what I saw...’,” he said. 

“She realised what it must be and they rang me.”

It took a lot of driving around to find the exact spot but there it was, a yellow rhino where it had no business to be, taking shelter under a tree in a remote part of the bush. The police took it back into town. 

"There was no damage, it just needed a bit of a polish to be as good as new,” Sergeant Goodwin said. 

While Ziggle Zaggle will return to his usual place in the hallway in time, he had a special spot picked out for his first day back. 

"We got it back on Sunday but we kept it secret from the kids. They kids only saw him today, we put him in the playground for them," Ms Dewar said. 

People close to the case are baffled about why Ziggle Zaggle ended up in that remote spot. Ms Dewar said she thought the thieves were afraid that, given the publicity surrounding his disappearance, they couldn’t keep him for fear of exposure. It featured on the Lithgow Mercury’s front page and attracted widespread attention. 

“It's not like you can hide him, he's pretty big," she said. 

A more fanciful explanation was doing the rounds at the police station. 

“The rhino was grazing in Newnes when he spotted Lithgow’s famous black panther on the prowl and hid under the tree to get away,” Sergeant Goodwin joked.

“We really have no idea why he ended up out there.”

On a serious note, Zig Zag Public School has introduced an alarm system. The break-in that saw the loss of the rhino was not an isolated incident, unfortunately, with another robbery in December last year.

“When we had just only replaced everything that they had robbed,” Ms Dewar added. 

The students, who had appealed for his safe return, are pleased to once again have their mascot in from the cold. 

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