OXFORD – Police Sgt. Theron Bickford knew it was going to be a long day the moment he laid eyes on the 8-foot-tall, spongy, yellow character hanging out in his office.
It was Monday morning. There had been reports of an inflatable SpongeBob SquarePants stolen from a city to the south. There was no reason to believe he would show up in Oxford.
Bickford was not prepared to come face-to-face with the missing sponge as he arrived at the police station to begin another week.
“I came in to work and there he was. SpongeBob was in my office,” Bickford said. “SpongeBob is a big guy.”
Big indeed. The inflatable creature was stolen last year from the top of a Burger King in Gorham. Inflated, SpongeBob is estimated to stand 8 feet tall. He was a little less imposing by the time he got to Bickford’s office.
“He was like a big, deflated beach ball,” the sergeant said. “I didn’t have any room for him.”
Last year, the Gorham SpongeBob was one of several reported stolen from Burger Kings across the country. The restaurant chain had been running a promotion in connection with a movie featuring the cartoon icon. From Maine to California, inflatable SpongeBobs were reported missing by the dozens.
“I don’t know much about SpongeBob,” Bickford said Wednesday. “But my kids like him. He’s like a big superhero to them.”
On Sunday, a woman walking near Cold Water Brook Road spotted the battered, deflated SpongeBob drooped in the woods behind a cemetery. She called Oxford police Officer Alan Coffin, who retrieved the inflatable and drove it back to the station.
For Bickford, the trick was to find someone to claim the mammoth balloon. He called Gorham police with a deal.
“I said: Listen. I would very much like to get SpongeBob out of my office,'” Bickford said. “I told them, if you come up to get him, you get closure on a case and I get rid of SpongeBob. Everybody wins.”
Case closed. Gorham police fetched the blow-up novelty and Bickford got his office space back. Business was back to normal at the Oxford Police Station. Except for news people calling for comment about the SpongeBob caper.
“There was a big production over it,” Bickford said. “I don’t know what that’s all about. It was Scooby-Doo when I was young.”
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