Giant Stolen Dairy Queen Spoon Found Thanks to … ‘Pokémon Go’?
If anyone ever tries to give you flak for still playing Pokémon Go after all these years, just remind them that the game helped solve the perplexing mystery of Dairy Queen’s giant missing spoon. Some readers were left scratching their heads on March 30, 2023, after AP News reported that a giant red spoon statue adorning a Diary Queen in Phoenix, AZ, had gone missing. The store’s owners, Puja and Raman Kalra, revealed that the spoon had gone missing a few days earlier and that three suspects had been captured stealing the spoon on security cam footage.
The spoon resembled Dairy Queen’s recognizable red spoons that come along with Blizzard ice cream orders. However, this spoon stood 15 feet high and was secured to a base against the side of the building. The suspects managed to unscrew the spoon and fled the scene with it. It is unclear what in the world the suspects wanted with a giant spoon. In a statement to AP News, Raman stated, “I appeal to the person. This spoon is too big to eat anything. We want you to bring it back. We will not ask any questions.”
While many readers found the humor in the story, this was no early April Fools’ Day joke. Someone actually stole a 15-foot spoon from Dairy Queen, and replacing it would have reportedly cost the owners at least $7,000. As a result, the police launched an investigation, asking the public for help in identifying the suspects or spotting the red spoon. Five days later, Pokémon Go surprisingly helped bring the odd case to a partial close.
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How Pokémon Go solved the Dairy Queen spoon mystery
52-year-old Michael Foster spotted the giant red spoon on the morning of April 3, 2023, on the other side of a fence surrounding a middle school baseball field. Meanwhile, he happened to come across the giant spoon because he was out playing Pokémon Go that morning. The spoon likely would’ve been found eventually, but Foster recalled being the only one in the area at that time to report the finding. HuffPo reports that he stated,
I did kind of look around and was like ‘What?’ One guy did finally come by and was like, ‘Is that what I think it is?’ Yeah, that’s the spoon.
The first thing he did was send a picture to his wife before calling the police. A staff member at the school was able to heft the spoon over the fence, where it was then handed to the police, strapped to the top of a squad car, and returned to its rightful owners. The mystery still isn’t fully solved, though, as the suspects remain at large. However, thanks to Pokémon Go, the Dairy Queen spoon theft is partially resolved.
(via HuffPost, featured image: Niantic, Inc.)
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