Two discarded 19-foot statues of Hugo the Hornet discovered in Charlotte junkyard

C HARLOTTE ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — The Charlotte Hornets are in the off-season , but its mascot is creating buzz off the court.

Two statues of Hugo have been found abandoned in a junkyard off of Independence Boulevard.

Queen City News did some digging to find out who put them there, and how long they’ve been sitting. On March 20, 2014, the Charlotte Bobcats officially changed its name back to the Hornets.

By that November, Novant Health announced a partnership with the franchise — by putting up two billboards off of I-277.

They featured two 19-foot-tall Hugo statues holding a basketball. Now, they sit abandoned at a junkyard, of sorts, along Independence Boulevard.

Hugo one and Hugo two have clearly weathered some storms. They’re sunburned, have split open, and have had several amputations.

The property itself is overgrown in areas and serves as a junkyard or storage for billboard parts and utility poles.

The Mecklenburg County Time Machine, which displays aerial imagery across our changing city, shows the mascots were laid to rest here nearly 10 years ago, in October of 2015.

A previous image from that Spring shows a relatively empty lot. The move came less than a year after they were proudly hoisted onto a billboard for all to see.

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