An Ottawa man has received tips from as far as Newfoundland after CBC News reported his replica of the anthropomorphic Herbie the Love Bug Volkswagen Beetle was stolen from its home at a Westboro car dealership on Scott Street.

Owner Mark Roos posted an ad on Kijiji offering a reward for the 1984 VW bug that disappeared from 2020 Scott Street on Oct. 26.

It's a replica from the 1968 Disney movie, The Love Bug, which became a franchise featuring a VW with the number 53 painted on it that has a mind of its own.

"He's the first thing that you see when you come in the morning. You can't miss him. We leave him right on the front line for display," Roos said. "People honk when they go by when they see him."

Roos said Tuesday he received a call from a woman whose husband was walking the dog past the dealership around 11 p.m. on Oct. 26. She told him her husband saw someone crouched behind the Herbie replica who appeared to be bolting Quebec licence plates onto the car.

The car had been on the lot on Scott Street since July, after it was purchased in an auction, Roos said.

"It's the only car we call 'him' because he has a personality," he said. "It was a very rare car in very, very good condition."

He said it's "maddening" that Herbie was taken and is concerned the rare model is being shipped out on a crate to be resold to a collector.

Roos said he believed the car came from Brazil or Mexico because Canada stopped selling the bug in 1979 and there are some unique characteristics that didn't exist in Canadian models.

"The blinkers weren't on the front fenders, they were in the front bumper," he said.