Yet another Jihadist victory

gwayneco · May 4, 2006

http://obscurestore.typepad.com/obscure_store_and_reading/2006/05/kidnappers_thre.html

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(view as multiple pages)By Courtney Paquette
Staff Writer

PLAISTOW — The letters started arriving at the Plaistow grocery store two weeks ago. All were typed meticulously in different fonts, every font in a different color and size. Each held a clue to the whereabouts of a missing member of the Market Basket family.

The first one was typed in bold black font, was mailed out of Manchester and read: "To whom it may concern: We have been shopping in your store for the past 20 years and if you close the store, the Pillsbury Dough Boy will be baked."

It contained a picture of the 4-foot-tall Styrofoam Pillsbury Doughboy, blindfolded, waving his puffy, white hand. Another showed him buried in the sand, with only his head peeking out.

The baking icon was "doughnapped" from the store April 15. He was snatched from his perch above the dairy section, where he kept watch over the butter and grated cheese for the past 20 years.

Since then, his captors have sent photos of his whereabouts every two days or so, complete with captions detailing his journey.

"He was the store mascot," said Maria Chester of Haverhill, who has worked at the store for 10 years.

Employees think their mascot's disappearance is linked to the store's closing. The Market Basket, one of two along Route 125 in Plaistow, is in Stateline Plaza on the Haverhill, Mass., border, and will close its doors for good Saturday, after serving the community for 20 years.

Stateline Plaza, which spans Haverhill and Plaistow, was bought by Northstar Centers LLC of New York a year and a half ago. The developer plans to turn the Market Basket, and two buildings on either side of it, into a Shaw's Supermarket.

The doughboy, apparently, started looking for a new job.

The day after he disappeared, photos show him at the Dairy Queen in Salisbury, Mass. There was a fire at the popular ice cream spot earlier in April, and it is closed for repairs.

After striking out there, on the third day, he tried being "keeper of the castle" at Winnekenni Castle in Haverhill, Mass., only to be turned down again.

On the fourth day, he tried his luck with the Haverhill Fire Department, but the letter said firefighters there told him "he couldn't take the heat."

After another rejection on the fifth day — this one from Skip's Hamburgers in Merrimac, Mass. — things went decidedly downhill.

Abandoning attempts to make a little "dough," on the sixth day the doughboy starts drinking vodka, takes in a show at Ten's Show Club, a Salisbury strip club, and then checks into the nearby Knotty Pine Motel.

Straightening out by Day 7, he's relaxing on a dock at an unidentified lake. On the eighth day, he's at Hampton Beach.

The most recent photo surfaced Tuesday afternoon in a letter mailed May 1 and postmarked from Middlesex/Essex, Mass. It shows the doughboy in front of Canobie Lake Park in Salem, N.H. He's getting ready to ride a roller coaster and yelling his trademark "woo-hoo" in excitement.

"It looks like he's looking for a new home," said Market Basket manager Gary Eaton of Seabrook, who has worked at the Plaistow store for six years. "Poor little guy."

Employees at first thought the theft was an "inside job," but no one's really sure. The letters containing pictures of their missing friend lend no clues because they are postmarked from Portsmouth to Manchester, from Plaistow to Merrimac, Mass.

All the photos and letters are stuck on a poster at the store, complete with the promise of a "reward" for his safe return.

But with the history of kidnappings of Pillsbury Doughboys in Plaistow, no one can quite be sure of that. According to Plaistow Deputy police Chief Kathleen Jones, a 3-foot-tall Pillsbury Doughboy was snatched from a resident's front lawn on Elm Street three years ago.

He, unfortunately, was never found.

Jones said police aren't investigating this most recent doughboy theft, as the store hasn't reported anything missing. Thefts can carry fines or potential jail time.

But Market Basket employees are keeping the faith that on Saturday, the day the store will shut its doors forever, their friend will make his triumphant return.

"Maybe at the end, they can take a picture of him in front of the store, saying 'bye to everyone," Eaton said.
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Yet another Jihadist victory

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