Honest Ed's offers $1,000 reward after hand-painted sign stolen outside store

Honest Ed's is offering a $1,000 reward for a large wooden sign stolen on Friday that the discount store calls "a little piece of history."

The hand-painted sign, which reads "Honest Ed's Pharmacy professional services since 1960," in royal blue lettering, was taken from itscaseon the outside of the store on Friday. The sign is a little more than two metres highby ametrewide.

• Hundreds gather for final free turkeys at Honest Ed's

Russell Lazar, general manager of the discount store that has been a fixture in Torontofor 68 years, said the sign is valued at $1,000. Security staffnoticed it missingfrom its case on a laneway close to Bloor Street West on Friday. The store is at the corner of Bloor and Bathurst Street.

"We feelterrible about it," Lazar said. "Somebody cut the lock and absconded with the sign.

"We hope to discourage people from stealing by offering the reward. It's a piece of history of our founders and the Mirvish family."

The theft has been reported topolice.

Lazar said the store has sold about 20,000 of its original signs, costing anywhere from $2to $35, in the last few years and its management believes the sign was stolen in part because the store is closing its doors in December.

"The handpainted signs of Honest Ed's have become very popular with collectors and those wanting to possess a piece of history of the retail store whose doors will close forever at the end of December 2016," the store's management said in a new release.

Lazar said the police are trying to obtain security camera video from businesses in the area. Police have received no tips yet.

"We don't want people stealing from us," he said. "The proper thing to do is bring it back to us."

He said he has no idea how the thief was able to leave with the sign in hand or whether the person threw it in a waiting truck.

"I don't know how they got away with it."

Last year, two signs were stolen from the store. Lazar said the reward is for the return of the sign and information leading to the person whostole it.

Honest Ed's was founded by Ed Mirvish in 1948.