A Waterloo man has been arrested for allegedly stealing items from a home under construction in Waterloo and for allegedly stealing from the historic Mandalay Mansion in Cedar Falls in 2021, according to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. 54 year old Brian Picken was caught carrying a camera and drills from the Waterloo home after an alarm tipped off police on December 15th. He was also wanted after items reported stolen from Mandalay Mansion wound up at a pawn shop in September of 2021. An investigation found Picken had pawned those items. Mandalay Mansion is a 4,200 square foot home built in the 1920s in what was then Cedar Heights, between Cedar Falls and Waterloo, on a bluff overlooking the Cedar River. It had 52 rooms, four fireplaces, an intercom system, 12 telephones, a dishwasher, a built-in vacuum system, a player pipe organ, a single lane bowling alley, shooting gallery, walk-in safe, and gymnasium. There is also a 2,000 square foot carriage house on the grounds with an underground tunnel connecting the two buildings. The main home was eventually sectioned off into 12 apartments while the carriage house was turned into two apartments. Preservation Iowa placed the building on its Most Endangered Buildings list in 2017.
