A Royals billboard that was stolen has been recovered after the 14-foot-tall cutout vanished on a popular Kansas City highway early Thursday morning. The stolen billboard, which is Kansas City Royals outfielder Dayn Perry, took about eight weeks to make.
The billboard also costs about $7,500 to make. Lamar Advertising said the Royals cutout player was found in some brush Friday morning, not too far from the area where it was stolen from.
“The Sherif”s Department determined that somebody took it. We have a neighbor who can verify that. They probably got a little scared and brought it back and just laid it off the side of a road,” said Bob Fessler of Lamar Advertising.
Fessler said a neighbor on his way to work spotted the Royals billboard and called authorities. Who took the stolen player from the sign remains a mystery.
“We do know there were two people on the sign and we do know they had a pickup truck,” Fessler said. Fessler said the cutout is in pretty good condition and can be reused.
“I think somebody thought this would be a great thing to do and it just backfired on them,” Fessler said.
Locals called it a pretty hard heist to pull off. But there’s also this: the president of the billboard company said it weighs 150 pounds. Oh, and “he” is also tethered to, you know, a tall billboard.
Workers from the company loaded it up and took it back to a warehouse for now. Fessler said he didn’t know if officials with Hy-Vee will want to have the figure re-installed.
A pickup truck was pulled in under the Royals stolen billboard and someone was using a rope to lower the player from its perch. But the witness thought the people involved were with the sign company and didn’t report it, said Fessler.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft.
