UPDATE: The beer sign has been returned! Read the latest from Mike Beiermeister here.
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Todd Brown knows how to hunt for beer and brewery memorabilia.
His shop, Brewtown Collectibles, is filled to the brim with relics of the past and pieces he’s currently restoring. The shop sits off Bay Street in Bay View.
Now, he’s searching for his new, 1964, 250-pound Schlitz beer sign after thieves snatched it off his shop’s front porch Tuesday evening.
Brown said it was last seen at 5:01 p.m. He had just stepped out. Shortly after, the thieves backed up onto the front porch and dragged the sign into a truck.
“At first, we thought it was scrappers, so we went to all of the scrapyards this morning,” said Brown. “But the police were like, “No, they knew what they were doing.”
VIDEO: HISTORIC BEER SIGN STOLEN: Owner shares plea for its return
A security picture shared with TMJ4 showed the truck with the sign in the back, departing around 5:08 p.m. The truck is a 1999-2001 Chevy Silverado, according to Brown.
“It [the chain] was hooked and wrapped around,” said Todd. “We were gone for 4-5 minutes when they stole it.”
Brown had just gotten the sign on Sunday from Northern Pines Resort in Butternut. It was too big to fit through the front door.
“It’s irreplaceable,” said Brown, who had only seen one other version of it that was destroyed by a tornado.
He and his wife were planning to convert their shop into a Milwaukee brewery memorabilia museum and use the sign as a focal point in the near future.
Now, they are calling on the community to keep an eye out for the sign. He shared a message for the people who stole it.
“Just return it,” said Brown. “If something breaks, I can fix it. Just get it back to us.”
The Milwaukee Police Department is investigating the theft.
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