Bigfoot is Stolen

BRENT CHAMPACO;

The News TribunePublished:

January 23rd, 2007

Bigfoot has gone missing in Federal Way, leaving no massive footprints in sight.

It isn’t a hoax. An 8-foot-tall, wooden carving of the fabled Northwest beast was reported stolen Monday from a chiropractic office on Southwest Dash Point Road.

Tim Payne, who’s had a practice in Federal Way for two decades, propped up the statue near his business’ secluded driveway more than five years ago. His family says he is fascinated with the lore of Bigfoot, which is why he chose the creature instead of a wooden bear or gorilla.
Although intimidating, Bigfoot welcomed guests and served as a landmark for lost passers-by. Payne said he paid $1,400 to the friend of one of his patients to carve it.

Payne couldn’t believe his eyes when he pulled into work Monday morning. Someone had apparently stolen the statue along with the chain that secured it to the fence. All he found were tire marks leaving the scene.

“Oh my goodness,” he remembers saying. “Someone finally got him.”

The news shocked Chantel Wilson, one of Payne’s two daughters and massage therapists at the family-run office. She said the beast was part of the family, no matter how much hairier it is than the rest of them.

Wilson’s three children often climbed the statue. Around town, people would describe how they couldn’t help but look at it.
“We would say, ‘If you see the Sasquatch, our office is the next right,’” she said.

Even authorities sometimes use Bigfoot as a landmark when trying to track down stranded drivers or others in the neighborhood, said Federal Way Police spokeswoman Stacy Flores. Her department took a report on the missing creature about 9:30 a.m. Monday.
Bigfoot is just the latest in a string of Federal Way icons that have gone AWOL in recent months.