COEUR d'ALENE - A pair of well-known snarling statues are once again standing sentry outside the front door of the home at 810 N. Third St.

The "castle" house, a Midtown landmark, stood unguarded by the concrete lions for the first time in about 20 years after they went missing last week while the owner of the house, Eric Soles, was on vacation.

The 2-foot-high, 200-pound statues didn't make it far.

A local citizen saw them in an alley a few blocks from Soles' house. Tuesday morning, with help from some other community members, Soles brought the lions home.

"I really believe it was the front-page article in The Press that did it," Soles said. "We know folks saw the story and recognized the lions."

Soles, who now lives in Bayview and is in the process of selling the house, initially turned to social media for help finding the lions. The Press saw the post and Monday, the newspaper published a story about the missing concrete beasts.

Soles was touched by the many phone calls he received from citizens who thought they saw the lions after reading the story.

"We had people send photos of lion statues asking us if they were ours," Soles said.

He even received a call from the man responsible for the lions being placed outside the Third Street home.

Virgil Edwards, of Coeur d'Alene, told Soles he put the lions there about 20 years ago.

At that time, the stucco "castle" house was home to a spa and massage business owned by a former girlfriend of Edwards.

Edwards went to a concrete molding business near Rathdrum seeking to purchase something to put outside the house that would catch peoples' eyes and drive them toward the business.

He traded some spa gift certificates for a pair of unfinished concrete lions, and spray-painted them right there in the garage behind the Third Street building.

"I about fell off my chair when I saw the lions in the paper. I had no idea they'd become iconic," Edwards said.

When Soles received the phone call Monday from a woman who said the lions had been spotted in an alley, his girlfriend called the Coeur d'Alene Police Department. Officers verified the lions were those missing from the Third Street home.

"Then they said, 'But we have no resources to be able to pick up something that heavy and get them back to the house," Soles said.

He posted the good news on Facebook, and friends from the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce and the chamber's Commodores group, which Soles belongs to, quickly offered to help.

But it was members of another group Soles belongs to, Coeur d'Alene VFW Post 889, who did the heavy lifting. The men took a break from their 8 a.m. coffee and doughnuts session to load the lions into a truck and place them next to the front steps of their Third Street home.

Soles shared his gratitude on his Facebook page Tuesday: "A great success story due entirely to the kindness and compassion of others! Way to go Cd'A, you got your lions back."