NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Police are searching for two thieves who stole a half-century-old dog painting from the facade of a beloved bar in the Bronx.
Video released by the NYPD on Friday shows the two suspects using a ladder to steal the hand-painted portrait from Alfie's Place on E. 177 Street in Throgs Neck on the morning of Feb. 20.
NYPD
The portrait, which features a winking dog holding a Jameson Irish Whiskey bottle, has hung outside Alfie's Place for more than a half-century, bar owner Kenny Banker told 1010 WINS.
"One guy climbed up with a pry bar, the other guy was a lookout, he was playing with it for about 15, 20 seconds, trying to get it off, finally snaps it off the wall, ripped it of, it was held up by screws and a steel plate, passes it off to the second individual, and then they flee to Edison Avenue," Banker said.
NYPD
"I'm hoping more than anything that it gets returned in one way or the other, whether the people that did this realize that it's a lot more serious and it has a lot more meaning," he added. "And what might have started out as maybe a joke, maybe it wasn't, I don't know, but it's got a lot of sentimental value, to me, my family and to the people of the neighborhood."
Anyone with information about the burglary is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
