SEATTLE — The famous sign designating Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood as the center of the universe was stolen – and video obtained by KIRO 7 on Thursday appears to show the theft in action.
The video (see below) shows a woman wearing camp clothing, who before 5:00 a.m. Wednesday began tearing down a street sign in Fremont.
As locals know, the sign at the intersection of Fremont Place and North 35th Street isn’t any ordinary sign – it’s the iconic sign designating the quirky neighborhood as the “Center of the Universe.”
KIRO 7 spoke to Norma Baum, the wife of the artist who designed the sign, and she said the news of the theft broke a small piece of her husband’s heart.
"You take it for granted, because you just see it like a tree or anything, and you don't really notice it anymore. But a lot of tourists will stand in the middle and take pictures of it,” Laurie Mason, who witnessed the theft, told KIRO 7’s Rob Munoz.
“It was one of those things, it was a guerrilla art piece. It was a sort of a thing happening in Fremont,” Baum said.
However, Baum said the sign her husband designed 30 years ago won’t be gone for long.
“Oh, he’s pretty upset, you know, but he’s determined to make another one,” Baum said.
Mason told KIRO 7 that Seattle police were alerted on the theft, but police considered it a low priority.
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