The manager of one of Dundee’s oldest pubs, The Pillars, has issued a plea for the safe return of a stolen model of the city’s old Town House.
The 100-year-old brass ornament, which is well-known among regulars at The Pillars on Crichton Street, was taken from its open display cabinet on Friday night.
Bar manager John Justice, who bought the model at an auction in 2015, is now offering a reward of £100 for information which leads to its return.
The ornament depicts the former Town House, which featured a ground floor piazza better known as the Pillars, the pub’s namesake.
Cleaning staff noticed the ornament was missing from its usual spot on Saturday morning.
John, 66, said: “The first thing I did was organise someone to come in and have a good look through the CCTV.
“I called the staff who were on the night before and said ‘was there anyone unusual or anything suspicious going on?'”
Workers hadn’t seen anything, but a review of the CCTV footage showed a man behaving strangely at about 10pm on Friday.
Brass model thief ‘definitely not a regular’ at The Pillars
John, who has run the bar for 12 years, said: “You can actually see him looking around, and he had a plastic bag, and you can just see him kind of scooping [the model] up and into his plastic bag.
“But we didn’t recognise him – he definitely isn’t a regular.”
John shared the footage on Facebook in a bid to track down the culprit.
He said: “It has been shared a lot on Facebook and you never know where that might lead.
“People have been very supportive.”
John, who reported the incident to the police on Monday, says he hopes the thief might have a change of heart.
He said: “I was hoping that the guy might just have been drunk and he might just wake up with an ornament and bring it in – have a pang of consciousness.
“I gave him a few days to come forward before I reported it to the police.
“Maybe he just liked it and wants it for his house, but he will probably have a hard time selling it for much, considering the publicity.”
The bar is named in honour of Dundee’s old Town House, which was demolished in 1932.
In the same year, a commemorative copper model was installed above the door of the pub.
‘I won’t have him arrested – but he’s banned’
John added: “If he just returns it, I am not the kind of person who would press the police to prosecute, but I think I would have to ban him.”
He says the 12×6 in ornament wasn’t very expensive – he remembers paying about £150 – but that it is a “one off” creation considered “part of the pub”, which first opened in 1864.
John added: “To a certain extent I think it is a waste of police resources.
“It is relatively trivial, but at the same time I think it should be reported, in case he is a serial thief.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 5pm on Monday, officers received reports of a theft from a premises on Crichton Street, Dundee.
“Inquiries are ongoing.”
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