Scarecrow Display Taken From Downtown Waukesha Store

WAUKESHA, WI—A Halloween display outside of a Waukesha chocolate store has gone missing. Over the past week, scarecrows have popped up outside of downtown Waukesha to promote the city and small businesses.

Staff at Allô! Chocolate, located at 234 W. Main St., showed off an upside-down scarecrow with a bag from the store. Store manager Crystal Radebaugh said on Monday morning it had vanished.

"I was so sad because we have seen people taking selfies with him," she said.

Radebaugh said the city holds a scarecrow festival and encourages people to walk around and see the displays. To her knowledge, no other scarecrows have been taken.

"It was my first year doing this. I didn't realize the majority of the scarecrows are up high on the light posts," she said.

She wanted to create a scarecrow that was unique and encouraged people to come to check out the store.

The store is offering a reward of chocolate if the scarecrow is returned.

"It isn't like this display came from Home Depot where there will be a hundred of him around. He is a unique individual," she said.

Radebaugh said she hasn't asked other businesses to see their camera footage and hasn't spoken to the police. She opted to use the power of social media to get the message out.

"Social media can be powerful to get people to notice," she said.

Radebaugh plans to make another scarecrow but it will have to be mounted up high. She added it won't be as accessible to people taking photos.

"It is sad that people put out displays that have meaning to them or meant to be fun for other people. It is sad someone feels they have a right to just take it," she said.

The store wasn't the only display theft in the area.

A purple silhouette representing a victim of domestic violence was stolen sometime Sunday night from outside The Women's Center, 505 N. East Ave. in Waukesha.

Angela Mancuso, executive director of The Women's Center, said the missing silhouette represented one of the victims of the October 2012 shooting at the Azana Salon and Spa in Brookfield.

Radcliffe Haughton killed his estranged wife, Zina Haughton, 42, of Brown Deer, and two other women, Cary L. Robuck, 35, of Racine and Maelyn M. Lind, 38, of Oconomowoc, at the salon before taking his own life.

"It is disrespectful to the survivors and victims of the Azana shooting and The Women's Center and our clients," Mancuso said.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The display of 12 to 15 purple silhouettes was created in 1992 to represent lives lost to domestic violence.

On Tuesday Mancuso posted a sigh where the silhouette once stood. It reads, " Her life was stolen and now her silhouette. She deserves better. Bring her back!"

Mancuso told Patch on Tuesday, "Who steals a memorial?!"