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Letter to the editor

Easy to miss, but very hard to forget

By Emily Nipps, Times Staff Writer
Published March 7, 2008

So many little visual quirks in South Tampa I take for granted. Yet, they're the things that make me feel most at home.

The big gray clock outside of Stan Good's on MacDill Avenue. The marquee outside of Kalupa's Bakery that always says things like, "February is cupcake month!" The statues in front of the Wallace mansion that look like horse mummies. The blocks of crew graffiti along the river.

But one image felt more personal than the others as I whizzed by, no pun intended - you'll see what I mean.

There, in a ladies room stall at Bella's Italian Cafe, was an eye-catching framed photograph. I've had occasion to gaze at it more times than I care to share: The side profile of a hook-nosed, crinkly eyed man, face painted like a clown, staring at what I imagine is a parade of some sort. On his shoulders sits a button-nosed, long-lashed little boy, also with his face painted, staring at my imaginary parade.

It sounds tacky or sappy, a father and son in clown getups. Yet something unusual and endearing touched you for the 30 or so seconds you were alone with that photo.

Apparently, one woman wanted more than 30 seconds.

During a trip to Bella's a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a sign on the front door offered a $1,000 reward for tips leading to the arrest of the thief who stole a poster in the ladies room.

Oh, no, I thought.

Sure enough, I went to the restroom and the clown photo was gone; a reward poster in its place.

According to Bella's co-owner Joanie Corneil, someone clawed through the matting and foam board behind the glass and metal frame and pulled the poster out, leaving only a ripped corner behind. Corneil was crushed. She paid about $5 for the poster in Venice in the 1970s and hung it in Bella's 14 years ago.

"That picture hung in my home for years," she said. "When I told my sons now in their 30s, they were so upset."

Others like me were also shocked to hear the news. Bartender Larry Heisel said women lament daily about the loss. On the restroom wall where the poster used to be, they have scrawled notes of grief:

Teared me up on first sight - missed!!

I only come into town once a month and I miss you clown!

I'm so sorry. It was beautiful.

"It's like a mini-9/11 back there," Heisel said. "Or so I hear."

Perhaps it's a woman thing, but the feeling of betrayal runs deep. Corneil said she had a hard time looking at her female customers for days after the theft.

"I just kept looking around, thinking, 'Was it her? Was it her?'" she said.

Carol Gates, who was one of Bella's very first customers 20 years ago and now lives in New Jersey, couldn't believe the gall.

"It was just an adorable picture, the interaction between the father and son," Gates said. "What kind of woman could do something like that?"

Whoever it is might want to nix plans of hanging it in plain view, especially if she lives in town. Word is spreading fast.

Corneil couldn't sleep the other night and finally got up and searched the Internet, hoping to find her poster or at least a duplicate print for sale. She Googled "pictures" and "Carnivale" and "Venice." She checked eBay and allposters.com. Nothing.

She hopes that a nice, honest person will come forward with information.

Surely the woman who stole the poster must have told someone else. Perhaps someone will recognize it hanging in someone else's hallway or bathroom.

Unfortunately, with the exception of Corneil's sons and a few men who may have spotted the photo before it went up in Bella's, only half of the population will recognize the image. So here's a little more description:

It's about 20 inches tall. It's in color, but it's that sort of muted '70s color, like an old movie poster.

The grinning man looks a lot like actor Dustin Hoffman; the cherubic boy is wearing a ruffled collar and has a tear painted under his eye.

There are probably some details I'm forgetting.

But how could I have known that one day, the details would be so important?

Anyone with information about the missing poster should call Bella's at (813) 254-3355. Emily Nipps can be reached at nipps@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3431.

[Last modified March 7, 2008, 00:31:26]