NOTE: PHOTO
Oh, the horror.
The East Side Big Boy Restaurant’s big Bob isn’t so big anymore after kidnappers literally cut off the grinning figure at the knees.
Jennifer Espinoza, service manager for the restaurant at 7945 E. Broadway, said a local radio listener who heard of the statue’s theft went out looking for Bob this morning.
She said the listener found poor Bob’s legs from the knees down, and maybe an arm, in a parking lot at a boarded-up, abandoned motel on North Stone Avenue near Speedway.
Police were still looking for the rest of the victim: 150 to 220 pounds of Formica; formerly 5 feet tall; with huge eyes and big, brown, wavy hair; red-and-white checkered pants; black shoes and a white “BIG BOY’ T-shirt.
Somebody stole the statue from the Big Boy Restaurant at 7945 E. Broadway last weekend, police said yesterday. It wasn’t the first time.
Just yesterday, Omar Koury, general manager of the restaurant, worried aloud for Bob’s safety. A few months ago a Bob statue in another state was stolen and later found cut up.
“I hope that doesn’t happen to this guy,’ Koury said before this morning’s discovery, adding, “If it comes back in one piece, I bet that we’ll not press charges.’
The statue apparently was taken between about 11:30 p.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday. It had been fastened to a wooden platform bolted to a concrete foundation. Employees found the wooden platform broken.
The restaurant actually has three Bobs. The stolen statue was one of two identical “running Bobs’ – Bobs who look as if they’re running away. The other is the “burger-serving Bob,’ holding up a gigantic hamburger.
“(Bob’s) twin is wondering where the other guy went,’ Koury said.
Bob has been targeted several times in the past few years.
Koury said the burger-serving Bob was stolen about three years ago. He was found abandoned in the desert off North Oracle Road.
The Bob now dismembered was stolen about two years ago. He was found “in someone’s back yard,’ Koury said.
Bob abductions have been reported to police around the country. Koury said he can understand why people chuckle about the chronic incidents, adding that the police officer who wrote the theft report this week laughed.
But Koury said employees are concerned about having their Bob stolen. “It’s not funny. It’s like losing a member of the family.’
“They destroyed it,’ Espinoza said today.