Company Offering $1,000 Reward For the Return of Unique Puzzle Stolen From Car
15 June 2021
A company is offering a staggering $1,000 for the return of a "collector's item" jigsaw puzzle after it was stolen from a car.
Yes, really!
The puzzle experts at Blue Kazoo are on the hunt for the thief that stole their 1-of-a-kind Mars puzzle prototype — 1 of only 2 in the entire world.
Blue Kazoo's Planet Series
The company decided to take to social media to find the culprits, by using TikTok and Instagram to reach a larger audience of sleuths to aid them in their search.
In their Instagram post, Abraham Piper, one of the owners of Blue Kazoo, shared the dilemma to their followers, writing...
"One of 2 unreleased production demos of the Mars puzzle was STOLEN from @joshsowin's car!! Do you think it'll end up on eBay? Burned in a fire for warmth? Do burglars like to puzzle after a long hard day of burgling? Is burgling even a word? Last seen in L.A. but who knows where it's headed next. DM us if you have any info."
Abraham later made a TikTok about the theft, in which he shared that his business partner Josh had his car broken into, which resulted in the puzzle being snatched...
@abrahampiper I’m basically a detective now. ##robbed ##storytime ##puzzle ##jigsawpuzzle ##reframe ##ebay ##collectorsitem ##stillalittlesad
♬ original sound - Abraham Piper
And to their surprise, people began tagging eBay listings that had appeared of the puzzle on their social media pages, not long after it was reported stolen!
One commenter wrote: "Yep saw it on eBay. Keep us posted on how or what you had to do in order to bet it back."
While another said: "Yep, found it on eBay and the seller (maybe he's the burglar??) put his TikTok ID too."
A third commented: "It's on eBay for sale $420.00."
​After learning the thief could be trying to sell the puzzle, Abraham took matters into his own hands, setting an alert on eBay in case the puzzle happened to appear again...
Blue Kazoo's Starry Wave Puzzle
He later said he has set up eBay notifications "to see exactly who robbed Josh and let them know that they are not charging nearly enough for that puzzle."
This is clearly a big deal for the company, who were only a short while off going into production with the puzzle.
Hopefully, the reward will speed up their search!