Melissa Riker expected that her new job would take her to new and exciting places.

A visit to the Oak Harbor Police Department to retrieve three wooden toy soldiers wasn’t part of that vision.

Riker, executive director of the Oak Harbor Main Street Association, walked into the lobby of the police station Monday and was reunited with the brightly painted wooden cutouts that were stolen in late November from historic downtown.

The holiday decorations were discovered over the weekend standing along the side of a rural road well outside city limits. They got a ride in a police car back to Oak Harbor.

“I had to sign for them and everything,” Riker said. “It was the most bizarre thing I have ever done.”

An evidence technician had to process the soldiers before they could be released, Riker said.

Yet it was a happy occasion.

The 4-foot-tall soldiers were part of an Oak Harbor Main Street holiday promotion in which businesses and community members were asked to adopt and decorate them for public display on Pioneer Way.

The joy lasted only a few days before vandals damaged some of the soldiers and stole four. It deprived the artists a chance to see their soldiers be part of a public vote to pick their favorite ones.

A total of 26 soldiers were put on display downtown. Seven were stolen, including one last week.

The three found last Saturday by an Oak Harbor family on the side of West Beach Road near Coupeville were part of the original four taken.

Taking a weekend drive to help their 7-month daughter Scarlett feel better and get sleepy, Stephanie and Travis Ellison opted for Scarlett’s favorite road trip along one of Whidbey Island’s most scenic roads.

Traveling south while approaching Libbey Road, Stephanie Ellison spotted three colorful figures on the side of the road propped up against some brush.

“I happened to be looking out the window and said, ‘Oh, toy soldiers,’” Stephanie said.

Stephanie said she then remembered reading a Whidbey News-Times article about how toy soldiers were snatched from Pioneer Way. She contacted authorities with the Island County Sheriff’s Office.

That exchange ultimately led to Oak Harbor police involvement.

“You can only imagine these wooden soldiers in the back of a cop car,” Riker said.

“I was so happy when we found them,” Stephanie said. “If somebody took something from me, I would want them returned.”

Found were soldiers decorated as a Seattle Seahawk, one decked out in pink camouflage and a third painted in traditional red, white and black.

“He’s a little banged up,” Riker said of the Seahawk, whose face mask was slightly askew.

The other two soldiers still flashed bright, frozen smiles.

“It’s a fun program,” said Riker, who started it with hopes of it being a downtown tradition.

Up next for the recovered soldiers and the rest on Pioneer Way is a trip to storage for safe keeping.

The three found Saturday will be put on public display next year and entered in the contest since they missed their chance this winter, Riker said.

Riker estimated the value of the decorated soldiers to be $150 apiece, factoring in time and materials.

Riker said she was pleased to see a happy ending to the five-week ordeal that ran the gamut of emotions, going from joy to sadness to flat-out strange.

She recalled the words she heard at the police station Monday: “You’re getting one pink toy soldier back … One British toy soldier back and one Seahawk soldier back.”

“I was like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe this is happening.’”

Three missing toy soldiers were propped up on the side of West Beach Road last week, awaiting discovery and an eventual return to downtown Oak Harbor. Photo provided