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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. --Her ebony hair perfectly parted and saucer-like eyes perpetually staring, the life-size Betty Boop statue became a local landmark on the city's Shore Drive. But Sunday morning, a patron discovered the $1,600 figure a block away from its home in front of Cool & Eclectic Furniture and Fashion -- without its head.
Six days later, the head remained missing.
"Without it, she's nothing," said store owner Larry Estes, who filed a police report Friday.
Estes collected Boop's body and placed it in a storeroom. Then he began searching up and down Shore Drive.
He is offering a free store item to anyone who comes forward with Boop's head.
"She's made a lot of people smile," he said of the mascot. "Who would do this?"
Betty has had run-ins before. Two years ago, Hurricane Isabel's winds tossed the statue down Shore Drive, severing limbs and crushing her head.
"From heel to head, I had to reconstruct her," Estes said.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/07/24/life_sized_statue_of_betty_boop_beheaded?mode=PF