Jacksonville, Ore.– The owner of a Jacksonville cafe opened her business today to find something missing.
At The Mustard Seed Cafe, owner Jeannie Inman was getting ready to start another day of business when she noticed her mascot, Jay, was gone from his usual place by the front door.
Jay, who was donated to the cafe by a local artist seven years ago, has since become a part of the business, greeting customers as they come and go and announcing that the cafe was open.
Inman isn’t sure why anyone would take the sculpture but she says these types of crimes are happening more frequently in Jacksonville.
“We lock our bathroom now because we’ve had stuff vandalized and stolen out of there,” said Inman. “We used to leave it open for people that needed it in the afternoons and evenings when we were closed but now we have to lock it. Just keeping our eyes more on things than we used to have to.”
Another neighbor in the area, who preferred not to be named, described how a metal sculpture was also missing from the front yard of his business. He soon found it however, discarded a couple blocks away.
Cameras were not available to capture footage of what happened, pushing Jeannie to consider installing some around the front door of the cafe.
Still, Jeannie hopes that her mascot can be found. She hasn’t been able to file a police report yet but is asking for the community’s help in keeping an eye open for Jay.
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