Humpty Dumpty caper at New Jersey mini-golf course sparks police investigation

In this photo released by the Cape May Police Department N.J., a damaged Humpty Dumpty statue is seen in the back of a truck on Sept. 7, 2025, in Cape May, N.J., after vandals stole it from a miniature golf course and dumped it nearby. (Cape May Police Department via AP)

CAPE MAY, N.J. — Humpty Dumpty took a big fall, and now police are hoping to crack the case.

A playful, colourful statue of the nursery rhyme icon was forcibly removed from a structure at a miniature golf course in Cape May, New Jersey, on Sunday and dumped down the street.

Local police say they’re looking for two men who are seen on video stopping at Ocean Putt Golf at around 4 a.m. Video shows one of them entering the course by climbing over a fence, grabbing and rocking the statue back and forth and pulling it off its foundation before walking off with it.

The statue, showing a smiling Humpty Dumpty with big, white head, red cheeks, a yellow bow tie, a blue jacket and grey pants, was found several properties away. In a nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty falls off a wall and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put him back together again.

A message was left at a phone number listed for Ocean Putt Golf, whose Instagram page shows the statue above one of the course’s holes earlier this year.

Cape May police detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying the two men seen in multiple videos posted on the department’s Facebook page.