BANGOR, Maine — The owner of Bagel Central posted a request at 7 a.m. Sunday on its Facebook page asking the thief or thieves who took the sign that hangs outside the front door to return it, no questions asked, and it worked.
“He walked in here, looked me in the eye with my broken sign and said, ‘I feel like an idiot,’” owner Sonya Eldridge said just before noon. “I said, ‘I think you’re a drunken idiot.’ He didn’t say anything to the contrary.”
The post was addressed “To the idiots who stole our sign.”
“We have been through this before. It happens about this time of year. I can assure you … you are on camera,” Eldridge posted. “But I am too busy right now to sit down and watch the video. If my sign shows up at my front door tonight I would be happy, if it doesn’t I’ll watch the video tomorrow. Yes I press charges.”
Bangor Police Department shared the post on its Facebook page and added it was willing to assist.
“It sounds like she will be forgiving,” Bangor police said in its post, adding that “Once the video is viewed by the criminal investigation division, all hope will be lost.”
The young man who brought back the sign said he dared someone to jump up and grab the sign, but the other guy was not able to. That is when the young man jumped up and knocked down the sign, breaking it.
“He panicked and hid it in the bushes,” the bagel shop owner said. “He went back this morning and it was still there.”
The young man agreed to pay for the damage, which Eldridge estimates may be as much as $300. “If we have to replace it, that will be another story.”