Over the years, a $1 million reward and a search in the Tioga Mine Pit failed to yield the stolen slippers, one of several pairs worn by Grand Rapids native Judy Garland in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz." 
 
 Only four pairs of the famous ruby slippers are known to be in existence, the News Tribune reported in 2015. Besides the stolen pair, the other three sets reside in the Smithsonian Institution, a Los Angeles museum and a private collection. 
 
 The ruby slippers were nearly at the end of a 10-week loan to the Judy Garland Museum when they were stolen sometime in the overnight hours of Aug. 27-28 in 2005. In the days following the theft, police said the emergency exit door window had been broken. A glass case containing the ruby slippers was broken and the slippers were removed, according to police. The museum had an alarm system, but the private security firm that operated it didn't receive a signal that any doors or windows were opened. It was discovered in the days afterward that the alarm system hadn't been set to alert the security firm that night. 
 
 Michael Shaw, the slippers' owner who loaned them to the museum, told the News Tribune in 2005 that the theft was "the worst nightmare for me." Kelsch said at the time that he was "devastated" by the theft. 
 
 "The slippers are a major attraction for our museum. It's our hope that the slippers can be recovered immediately," Kelsch said in 2005. 
 
 But the theft of the ruby slippers has remained an open police case for 13 years. 
 
 Divers from the Itasca County Sheriff's Office took a look around the Tioga Mine Pit in 2015, based on the rumor that the slippers were sealed with a weight in Tupperware and tossed into the pit's water. The ruby slippers weren't found during the dive, but a small duffel bag and a partially deteriorated tin can were found and turned over to the Grand Rapids Police Department. 
 
 A $1 million reward was offered on the 10th anniversary of the theft in 2015 by an anonymous Arizona-based fan, and the Grand Rapids Police Department received more than 40 tips about the stolen slippers. The leads came from as far away as Arizona, the East Coast and the United Kingdom and included tips that the slippers were seen at garage sales, given away in radio station contests and stapled on a restaurant wall. But the deadline to collect the reward came and went without any credible leads or the return of the ruby slippers. 
 
 The Judy Garland Museum also hired Twin Cities private investigator Rob Feeney, who told the News Tribune in 2015, "We're never going to stop looking for these things. I know the public is never going to stop having an interest in it until they're actually recovered." 
 
 The stolen ruby slippers were featured in July on the Discovery Channel show "Expedition Unknown," in which host Josh Gates visited the museum during the winter and conducted his own underwater search for the slippers with quips about northern Minnesota's weather. 
 
 "Grand Rapids may be freezing, but this case is anything but cold," Gates concluded. ||||| The thief left behind bits of broken glass and a single red sequin on the floor. 
 
 So began a 13-year-old mystery filled with wild tips and offers of lavish rewards in the hunt for two ruby slippers snatched from a museum in Judy Garland’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn. 
 
 Now homecoming heel clicks are ahead: Investigators have found the stolen slippers, bringing closure to an Oz-sized search for the most famous pair of shoes in movie history. 
 
 There’s no place like home. 
 
 Authorities were announcing Tuesday afternoon that they’ve recovered the shoes. The slippers filched from the Judy Garland Museum were one of several pair donned by Garland in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” and one of only four known surviving pairs from the movie production that launched Garland’s meteoric fame. 
 
 North Dakota U.S. Attorney Chris Myers says though the recovery was made, authorities are still looking for who is responsible for the theft. They are still seeking the public's help moving the investigation forward. 
 
 The tip that led to the recovery came last summer, and the slippers were found in Minneapolis in August. 
 
 Before the crushing theft in August 2005, the size 5 ½ slippers were on loan to the museum from Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw. Shaw told the Star Tribune in 2005 that he bought the slippers and other “Wizard of Oz” collectibles at an MGM auction, calling it “the deal of the millennium.” 
 
 Someone broke into the museum on Aug. 28, snatched the slippers and fled. Nothing else was taken. 
 
 Museum officials said at the time that an emergency exit had been tampered with. 
 
 Over the years, the hunt spurred pleas from surviving film performers and an offer of a $1 million reward on the 10th anniversary of the theft. Divers from the Itasca County Sheriff’s Office have even plunged into a watery quarry in their search for the shoes. 
 
 The slippers’ disappearance dealt a body blow to the small museum in Garland’s hometown, about 200 miles north of the Twin Cities. Garland, born Frances Gumm, lived in Grand Rapids until she was 4 ½, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died of a barbiturate overdose in 1969. 
 
 The museum bills itself as offering the world’s largest collection of Garland and “Wizard of Oz” collectibles. 
 
 Museum officials say many of the thousands of visitors drawn there each year still ask what happened to the sparkling burgundy footwear. 
 
 “They’re the symbol of the longing for home — a symbol of a sense of place,” John Kelsch, the museum’s executive director, said in a 2016 interview. “Of any artifact from the movie, they touch that emotion in people.” 
 
 At the time of the theft, the slippers had been insured for a slick $1 million. 
 
 “France has the ‘Mona Lisa.’ America has ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” Kelsch told the Star Tribune. “It’s our national masterpiece, so much a part of the American experience.” ||||| A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and stolen from the actress’ namesake museum in Minnesota more than a decade ago has been recovered, the FBI announced today. 
 
 The iconic sequined shoes, known as the “traveling pair”—one of at least four pairs used in the film that are still in existence—were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005 and recovered earlier this summer during a sting operation. But the case is far from over. 
 
 “From the outset,” said Special Agent Christopher Dudley, who led the investigation from the FBI’s Minneapolis Division, “our top priority was the safe recovery of the slippers.” Although multiple suspects have been identified, Dudley said, “we are still working to ensure that we have identified all parties involved in both the initial theft and the more recent extortion attempt for their return. This is very much an active investigation.” 
 
 At a press conference in Minneapolis to announce the recovery, the FBI, along with the Grand Rapids Police Department, asked for the public’s assistance. “There are certainly people out there who have additional knowledge regarding both the theft and the individuals responsible for concealing the slippers all these years.” Dudley said. “We are asking that you come forward.”
– It required more than three clicks of the heel to get these ruby slippers home—it took 13 years. Law enforcement officials announced Tuesday that the shoes stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn., in late August 2005 have been found—but no thief has been apprehended. The Minneapolis Star Tribune cites North Dakota US Attorney Chris Myers as saying authorities are still looking for the person responsible; no suspects were mentioned. The FBI reports in the summer of 2017, the company that insured the shoes for $1 million was contacted by an individual with a tip; officials are vague on details beyond that but say the slippers were ultimately recovered during a sting operation in Minneapolis. The Smithsonian didn't just confirm the slippers were the genuine article, per the FBI: They realized the stolen pair and the one at the museum are "mismatched twins." The Duluth News Tribune reports the pair in question, one of four known to exist, wasn't to remain at the Judy Garland Museum but were on a 10-week loan from owner Michael Shaw. In the wake of the slippers' disappearance, police learned that an emergency exit door window was broken and that the museum's alarm system was never triggered as it hadn't been set on the evening in question. The oddest turn in the case came in 2015, when divers with the Itasca County Sheriff's Office followed up on a rumor the shoes had been put in Tupperware and tossed into the water that filled the Tioga Mine Pit; divers found only a small duffel bag and an old tin can.