LAKE STEVENS — Chicken Jr. is back.
The second incarnation of the famous Lake Stevens Chicken Drive-In rooster — stolen from its perch nearly a year ago — has turned up.
Last week a man was driving in the Frontier Air Park, a community built around an airstrip north of Lake Stevens, when he spotted the bird in some bushes on a dead-end road, according to Frank McDaniel, a former owner of the drive-in.
The man loaded the 7-foot fiberglass fowl into his truck and dropped it off at the convenience store McDaniel owns in downtown Lake Stevens, next to the Chicken Drive-In.
The man didn’t leave his name or any contact information, according to McDaniel, who said he wasn’t at the store at the time and got the information second-hand.
The bird apparently has been through a lot since it disappeared in February 2008, McDaniel said. It’s been spray painted with a yin-yang symbol, and another that looks either like the White House or the Lincoln Memorial, he said.
The bird also looks like it was dragged around.
“There was a little bit of damage to it,” he said. “If it was a person it would be like a raspberry or rug burn or whatever.”
McDaniel said he contacted the Lake Stevens Police and a detective came out, photographed the bird and took a report. Police Chief Randy Celori said it’s not certain if the bird’s owner, former drive-in owner Trisha Akerlund, wants to pursue charges if an arrest is made.
McDaniel is storing the rooster at an auto body shop he owns and is thinking of cleaning it up. The new owner of the drive-in, Shawn Cho, is considering reinstalling it outside the drive-in. Cho bought the eatery from Akerlund, McDaniel’s cousin, a month ago.
“I kind of like it,” Cho said of the tradition of high schoolers “stealing” the chicken as a prank and, usually, returning it.
Shortly before the bird was stolen, Akerlund was told by Lake Stevens city officials that it violated the city’s sign code because it also was displayed in combination with two other signs on the building.
The first chicken, which stood atop the original Chicken Drive-In in Frontier Village from 1968 to 1995, is still in the possession of Dave Huber, who once owned the eatery.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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