After a couple of weeks without surfacing, Sharky was found beached on the shore in Gibsons on Feb. 6.
The Mosaic Market rubber shark head tourist attraction had been reported stolen by market owner Kathy Trites on Jan. 23 and Coast Reporter ran a story on the unusual theft.
The story got a lot of talk in coffee shops and online message boards, but no one fessed up or returned the shark to the Davis Bay store.
“On Feb. 6 one of the girls had just opened the store and the phone rang,” Trites said.
“It was a woman who was out walking on the beach in Gibsons who saw it and she recognized it from the newspaper.”
Trites quickly hopped in her car and raced to the beachfront near the Gibsons Public Market where the caller said Sharky could be found.
She was delighted to find the store’s tourist attraction, worth about $650, intact and not much worse for wear.
“He just needs a little cleaning up,” Trites said.
But Sharky hasn’t returned to his home in front of Mosaic Market in Davis Bay just yet. “We’re figuring out a very secure way to replace him and I want to get some nice lighting up there and we’re going to have a welcome home party,” Trites said.
She has planned Sharky’s welcome home party for Sunday, Feb. 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Mosaic Market.
There will be games and food and, of course, photo-ops with the star attraction.
As for where Sharky’s been the past couple of weeks, no one’s talking.
“My theory is that somebody took it and then it got too hot to keep,” Trites said, guessing the shark head was placed on the beach in Gibsons on purpose.
“I don’t think it would have floated all the way from Davis Bay to Gibsons. It would be a cool story if it did, though – Sharky out for an adventure – but I think he would have sunk because the wood was still on the bottom that we had attached to the boat, and if it got water in it, it would have just gone down.”
Whatever happened, Trites is just happy to have Sharky back.
She thanks the community for keeping an eye out for the Davis Bay tourist attraction, which now has a little more local lore.
