Happy Ending: Missing Sturgeon Found at Last

Turns out Stevie the sturgeon didn’t swim far after it was reported missing from Sturgeon Interiors.

 The was solved after two weeks, when the son of neighboring business owner, dentist Richard Seymour, found the sculpture on the roof of the interior design business.

“He called Friday (June 3) and said ‘Guess what? Your sturgeon didn’t go very far,” Sturgeon Interiors owner Betsy Hoke said. “He has a ladder on the back of his building, so we think they took it up the ladder and then walked from his roof to our roof.

"The kids who put it up there are probably having a good laugh about this.”

The two-week-long mystery, dubbed “Sturgeongate” by store employees, began when store employees noticed the 7-foot-long, purple-and-white sturgeon went missing from the outside lawn sometime between May 20 and May 23.

It appeared the vandals had sawed the sturgeon off of its mounting poles, breaking off one of the fins and scratching it up in the process. Hoke sent the sturgeon off for repairs last week and expects it to come back looking as good as new. She said the repairman has affectionately dubbed the fiberglass fish "Stevie."

Although the sturgeon was right under their noses, Hoke said there was no way they would have known it was on the roof because the recessed roof is covered by a parapet wall.

This isn't the first time the Seymours have found something on the roof, either.

"Last year, he said they found a wheelbarrow on the roof," Hoke said. "I don't know what it is about putting things on rooftops."

Stevie had become something of a mascot for the store ever since Hoke placed the top bid on him seven years ago at a sturgeon-themed street art exhibit in Sturgeon Bay. Hoke said the neighbors have grown fond of the sturgeon over the years and were troubled by the news that it had gone missing.

When the sturgeon went missing, Hoke put out a large banner asking for any information about the sturgeon's whereabouts and offered a reward for its return. After they found the sturgeon, they flipped the sign around.

"We turned our sign around, and neighbors called to ask, 'Does that mean the sturgon has been found?'," Hoke said. "Little did we know he never left."