Heartless thieves steal beloved Haight dinosaur statue

For 40 years, Dino the dinosaur statue had lived on San Francisco's Haight Street, a friendly polka-dotted beacon to those needing new shoes.

But one day last week, dinosaur rustlers stole the turquoise brontosaurus from outside the Shoe Biz store. The owners were naturally crushed by the disappearance of their beloved mascot.

And concerned that he might be ridden like a rocking horse.

"Lost Dinosaur. He's big, turquoise, doesn't bite. If found, you know where he belongs. Please don't sit on him," read a flier posted near the shop.

A photo of the poster sparked sauropod-related outrage on Instagram.

"Dino had been the identity of 1553 Haight since 1975," said sutrofootwear. "Haight without Dino will never be the same. We should start the #bringdinoback hash tag."

lady.lurk@raul2d2 chimed in, "Oh no! Who could do such a thing!"

"Villains! That's who," responded raul2d2.

A photo posted by Shoebiz II (@dinobiz) on Jan 23, 2016 at 2:36pm PST

If kidnapping was the intent, the miscreants have yet to make a ransom demand.

Let's hope they do the right thing and returned the purloined plant-eater to where it belongs in front of Shoe Biz.

Don't let Dino become just another extinct dinosaur.