By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
This may be the most unbearable crime committed in Sea Isle City this summer.
The beloved neighborhood mascot Raul has apparently been kidnapped – or bear-napped.
The oversized stuffed teddy bear that provides a humorous presence each summer in the neighborhood of 38th Street and Central Avenue has gone missing.
“We’re trying to find him. It’s a big mystery. We don’t know if anyone stole him,” said Jonathan Markulics, Raul’s owner.
Markulics lives in Blackwood, N.J., and is a summer vacationer in Sea Isle. His family has a summer retreat in Sea Isle, but actually the teddy bear had taken up residence at 3820 Central Ave. at the home of one of Markulics’ friends.
Markulics and his friends moved the approximately 5-foot-tall, beige-colored stuffed animal to different spots outside the home at 3820 Central to amuse the neighbors this summer. First, the bear was lounging in a chair on the roof, then he was tied to a gutter and finally he was sitting on the railing of the front deck.
“When we had him on the roof, it was a big people-pleaser. People were taking pictures of him,” Markulics said.
Raul was still on the deck when Markulics left last week to return home to Blackwood. But he was gone when Markulics returned to Sea Isle last Friday.
Now, the neighbors are expressing concern about the bear’s whereabouts.
“Everybody wants to know where he is,” Markulics said.
Markulics is using the Facebook community forum SIC Chatter and his own Facebook page to ask for help in finding Raul. He is also planning to print up fliers with the bear’s photo on them and place them around town.
Coincidently, the same type of fliers were printed in 2019 and attached to utility poles when a 6-foot-tall inflatable giraffe named Gucci went missing from the beach house where its owner lives in Sea Isle.
The giraffe had served as a conversation piece and goofy memento on the beach. It was even adorned in a patriotic red, white and blue bikini in 2017 and paraded down the beach for photo ops.
To the relief of the owners and its fans, Gucci was eventually returned. Markulics, who remembers Gucci, is hoping the same fate is in store for Raul.
As a reward, he jokingly suggested that he is willing to pay the $10 cover charge at the Ocean Drive bar for anyone who finds the bear.
“I’m sure we’ll find him,” Markulics predicted. “We talked to other neighbors. We’re still trying to come up with clues.”
Anyone who has information about the teddy bear is urged to contact Markulics with a message on his Facebook page at (1) Jonathan Markulics | Facebook.
“If anyone has any leads as to where our beloved Raul may be please message me. We miss him and the people of Sea Isle miss him. Please help us bring him home,” Markulics posted on his Facebook page.
