US man charged with theft for stealing a pair of red slippers that Judy Garland wore in the film The Wizard of Oz

A senior citizen from the United States has been accused of stealing a pair of iconic red slippers worn by Judy Garland in the classic film The Wizard of Oz nearly 20 years ago.

The famous sequined shoes, forever linked to Dorothy’s character and her iconic phrase, “there’s no place like home,” were taken from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005.

Although the slippers were recovered during an FBI operation in 2018, no charges were initially filed. Despite a million-dollar reward for information leading to an arrest, no progress was made.

However, on Wednesday, Terry Martin was indicted by a grand jury and charged with one count of theft of major artwork, according to the US Justice Department office in North Dakota.

No specific information about Martin or the circumstances leading to him as a suspect in the theft were provided in the announcement. The incident involved breaking a glass display case containing the shoes in the middle of the night.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper, Martin is a 76-year-old who resides 12 miles away from the Garland Museum. When contacted by the paper, Martin simply stated, “gotta go on trial. I don’t want to talk to you.”

These slippers are among the four pairs that Judy Garland wore while filming the beloved 1939 movie. The Justice Department referred to them as “widely recognized memorabilia in American film history.”

At the time of the theft, the shoes were insured for $1 million, but their current value is estimated at around $3.5 million.

Upon their recovery in 2018, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History verified the authenticity of the slippers, as they possess one of the four genuine pairs.

Following the theft, the Grand Rapids police received numerous tips, with one claim suggesting that the shoes were nailed to a wall in a roadside diner, while another insisted they were thrown into an iron-ore pit.

“They’re more than just a pair of shoes,” Chief Scott Johnson remarked in 2018. “They’re an enduring symbol of the power of belief.”