Jen Todd

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Emmett Carter arrived at her upcoming restaurant Helen's Hot Chicken in Portland Wednesday to find giant chicken legs sticking out of the ground — the rest of her chicken was missing.

"They cut the legs because they were cemented into the ground," Carter said.

Two men, one masked, stole the eight-foot tall aluminum chicken, nicknamed Toot, Tuesday around 2:20 p.m. at 809 N. Broadway, according to video footage. Portland Police have been notified and are looking for the men.

"It's ridiculously scary that they were bold enough to do that in broad daylight," Carter said.

One man weighed roughly 160 pounds, wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie. The masked man was larger, wearing a long-sleeved work uniform, work boots and yellow work gloves. Both men were white.

"If I was working in the building and walked out there, I would've panicked," Carter said.

After taking the chicken, one man drove a black car toward town while the other drove a white pickup truck in the opposite direction.

Carter believes the men could have been dangerous. A Portland resident for more than three years, she has never felt unsafe, she said.

She is also upset because the chicken was nicknamed for her son, who is away at college.

"It's kind of sentimental, being a single parent," she said.

But the chicken's absence will not take away from Carter's goal to open Helen's Hot Chicken in one month. Architect Thomas Parshal with TLP Architects has two more weeks of work on the restaurant.

The community has been looking forward to the restaurant's opening since it was announced last fall. A nearby factory is even creating a path for its workers to easily walk to Helen's.

"It's a hot chicken craze — everyone's going crazy," Carter said.

Carter plans to release photos and video of the theft on the restaurant's Facebook page. Anyone with more information about the incident can contact the Portland Police Department at 615-325-2061.

Reach reporter Jen Todd at 615-806-2124 or on Twitter @jentoddwrites.