But police and Wake County school security officials continued to search for his kidnapper late last week.

Davey is the bronze statue that was stolen from a concrete pedestal at Davis Drive Elementary almost two weeks ago. The 55-pound figure, which was discovered at the bottom of a swimming pool in the nearby Sherwood Green neighborhood, was returned to the school on Wednesday, after its photo appeared in The News & Observer.

"We do not have any suspects at this time," Cary Captain Mike Williams said. "... Any information that comes forward, we'll investigate."

Administrators at Davis Drive Middle School next door say the theft was captured on surveillance cameras at 10:45 on Aug. 17.

In a memo to parents and students, they said a teenager in light-colored shorts, a T-shirt and a hat was seen walking from the middle school parking lot.

He talked on a mobile phone as he pried Davey from his base of sculpted waves, the memo said. He then ran toward Davis Drive.

Davey was a gift from the school's fifth-grade class in 2008. Students went classroom to classroom accepting $3 donations, raising $325 for the statue, which cost about $400, according to Chip Mack, the principal st Davis Drive Elementary.

Cristen Hardin, a pool maintenance employee, discovered Davey about noon on Aug. 18, shortly after the statue was stolen. But she didn't know where the figure had come from or to whom it belonged. So she put the 30-inch statue in the pool's chemical storage room.

After reading about the missing mascot in the newspaper on Wednesday, a colleague of Hardin brought Davey to the school, where he received a hero's welcome.

"People were like, 'Oh my God, Davey's back!'" said Ed Miller, 54, who works for Covenant Pool Care, the company that maintains the Sherwood Green pool. "It was pretty cool."

The statue - normally upright on his flipper, with outstretched fins - spent Wednesday on his belly on a table in Mack's office, where he awaited a new perch.

Mack spread word of Davey's return to students and teachers over the intercom.

Awaiting a ride home, third-grader Cheyne Mosher and fourth-grader Andrea Huynh gathered around Davey in Mack's office. Mosher inspected a cut behind Davey's left flipper, an injury sustained last year while the dolphin was mounted in front of the school.

Other than a tangle of metal near its fluke, where it used to be attached to the pedestal, Davey was no worse for wear.

"I actually lost sleep over this," said Paula King, a parent who helped students raise money to buy Davey. "... I am absolutely thrilled and extremely happy. It's nice when there's a happy ending."

Indeed, the ordeal is not entirely over. Mack hopes the person responsible for the crime will step forward - and pay for the removal of the old pedestal and the installation of a new one. "I plan for it to be inside ... to prevent this from happening in the future," Mack said.