LOS ANGELES - The man awarded $50,000 for finding dozens of missing Oscars days before this year's Academy Awards program says he lost $40,000 of the money to burglars who broke into his apartment while he was on vacation.
''I didn't get a chance to even enjoy my money,'' a dejected Willie Fulgear told KCAL-TV on Friday.
He said he returned from vacation to discover burglars who broke into his apartment had carried off a safe containing the money and jewelry.
''They took the safe. They took some of my movies, my VCR and they just messed everything up,'' he said.
Officer Ed Funes, a police spokesman, said he had no details on the case because he hadn't seen a burglary report yet. But he added he didn't doubt Fulgear's account.
Television broadcasts showed Fulgear's apartment being dusted for fingerprints and photographed for damage. Calls to his home went unanswered Friday night.
Fulgear received his reward from Roadway Express, the Akron, Ohio-based shipping company that lost the 55 Academy Awards last March. The 61-year-old salvage man found 52 of them in a trash bin in the city's Koreatown section on March 19.
Three remain missing, and one person has been charged in connection with the theft.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expressed its gratitude by inviting Fulgear and his son, Allen, to the March 26 Oscar show, where host Billy Crystal singled him out for praise.