COURTESY OF CARLOS A. WEBER
Donning Pilgrim gear, Lanikai SpongeBob greeted passers-by during the Thanksgiving season. Alas, he has been stolen.
Spongenapped!
The beloved creation of a
Lanikai resident is swiped,
with many fearing an
untimely demise
In the dark early morning hours Tuesday, an unknown person or persons stole a 6-foot sculpture of SpongeBob SquarePants, the jellybean-yellow cartoon character with the toothy grin, from the front yard of a home in Lanikai.
Posters have gone up throughout the Aalapapa Drive community offering a reward for information leading to the return "in one piece" of the neighborhood icon who wore a jaunty Santa hat at Christmas, a yarmulke at Hanukkah and giant bunny ears at Easter.
Neighbors are saddened and incredulous at the theft of the huge likeness of the popular Nickelodeon TV show character.
"It's all very sad," said Helen Bains-Jordan. "No one complained about him. He always had that happy toothy grin. People and even buses of tourists would stop to have their picture taken with him."
Lanikai SpongeBob's creator, Dr. Carlos Weber, a 57-year-old surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, said yesterday, "We are very saddened that SpongeBob had been sponge-napped."
Police were notified, but no clues or notes were left at the scene.
Weber said that one woman called Wednesday morning to report seeing SpongeBob's hand in a trash bin at Kailua Intermediate School. By noon, when Weber reached the bin, the trash had been collected.
"I think SpongeBob might be on the way to the HPOWER plant to be incinerated," said Weber yesterday afternoon.
By early evening, hopes were fading that SpongeBob would be recovered, and neighbors offered the Weber family their sympathy and at least one tray of lasagna.
"People thought (Lanikai SpongeBob) was funny or maybe weird but certainly harmless," said neighbor Heidi Smith.
"The whole thing is kind of sad and mean. I was jogging with someone this morning who said, 'Oh, I hope whoever did this is taking good care of SpongeBob,'" she said.
Lanikai SpongeBob did have some rough moments in the neighborhood, however. One time, he was egged and knocked around. Weber responded the next day by applying a huge bandage to the wounded sponge. Another time, he was knocked over. Weber administered aid again, outfitting SpongeBob with a set of crutches.
But SpongeBob also got special treatment. Easter morning, when the Weber family woke up, there was a huge golden egg lying in tribute at SpongeBob's feet. It was actually a watermelon spray-painted gold.
Weber had no idea about the thieves' motive.
"He was so big. Somebody could not have just walked away with him. They needed a van or at least a pickup truck," said Weber.
It took the surgeon eight hours to build SpongeBob from polyester foam, a wooden frame, broomstick handles, X-ray film, lots of spray paint and gardening gloves for hands.
He first went up for neighborhood viewing on Oct. 30. SpongeBob replaced an earlier sculpture of the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz," who, like SpongeBob, was properly costumed and festooned for each holiday.
"I'm just afraid SpongeBob is on the way to the incinerator," Weber said.
