Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hey Elizabeth zaren Burnette, So good to see you. I got a question for you, Yes, sir, all right, do you know what's ridiculous? I do?
Sit down? You sit down.
I'm all buckled up. Let me know.
All right. So Christian Billion, that's he's not ridiculous, Christian bon he's a cool dude. He is a Midwest He's a rude dude. He's a rude dude. He sent us a DM on Instagram, sure, and his caption was, I don't think this is a mashup, but it's unclean, unclean, unclean. And a couple other people sent it, but he was the first through the gate, and he had the funniest comment about it. Okay, And so when it was shown to me, what it is is it's Krispy Cream cheesecake tacos.
Oh.
Yeah, so there's some sort of it looks like a legit taco shell that has been dipped on the outside in white chocolate, oh, which is just like oil. And then I think there's some sort of cheesecake smashed inside. And then they shoved donut in it, a Krispy Cream donut. So It's like a taco shell filled with smashed up cheesecake and then a Krispy Creme donut shoved in it.
This is a taco in the line of like choco.
Taco completely, but shove a Krispy Cream up in there between them taco lips, and then you just have this disaster. Right, it's not a mashup, So Christian's right, it's not a mashup. And we get a lot of stuff like this. They were showing me our Instagram feed, the Ridiculous Crime. Yeah. They in turn showed me that I hadn't really seen the feed because we don't follow a lot of people apparently.
No.
No, it's just like a handful and it's no one. It's like random weird accounts. Anyway, they were showing me the feed, and it consists of basically dog stuff, a lot of Golden retriever things, which makes sense that when we talk about that, and then these horrible food things that aren't mashups, but like we just were scrolling through and I started writing them down. Cinnamon sugar cruffins, icy carbonara, spring rolls. What was another one? Upside down pastry, upside
down puff pastry, tacos pass. There was one stuffed garlic bagel filled with cream cheese and dunked in garlic.
Butter hard pass.
Some Moores dip barbecue, brisket, baked potato.
I don't know if I can compete on all of this stuff.
Is like, if you hate yourself and you're drunk and you've got serious issues, you just throw this food together and you lay on the floor and eat it.
As it sounds like you don't like food.
Yeah, I mean that's the other thing. But here's so. So I pulled up the Krispy Cream cheesecake tacos. I could only find it on the original link that tasted that is the Instagram, and it said would you try these Crispy Cream Cheesecake tacos? And you know whatever, and then you can like follow them for food content hashtag food porn. It is what it said. But the comments Lawyer's first choice said anyone who would eat this doesn't like themselves.
Lawyer's first choice hard comedy.
Someone said, just got diabetes looking at this. Let me get a dozen though, Okay hates himself. So anyway, it's you know, everyone's talking about how it's gluttonous and it's this and that. But you know, obviously their eye clicked on it. And if you look down at the other references, they have a cookie monster taco.
Can it possibly taste good?
A loaded fries variety box.
It's so rich it passes the point of being sweet and saying.
There's probably no flavored differential between. It just becomes a big glob of sugar and oil.
Yeah. I feel like it would give you like a headache, sugar.
Alcohol, everything. There's something wrong with us.
I don't know.
This is not how we're supposed to be living.
No, this is very late.
And I like, I like desserts, and I like, you know, man, I love chacos.
Yeah, but this is like, you know, the desserts that they were serving right before the French Revolution went to the court completely our version of that, the Fall of Rome, same thing.
This is, this is the end times food. So that's ridiculous that I know it is.
Thank you so much, But how about this, Elizabeth on food? How about people who can't stop stealing enormous statues of fun little round boys. We just want everyone to enjoy a cheeseburger.
Oh I think I know what this is.
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers heist in cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. Yes, oh Elizabeth, Yes, Have you ever eaten at a Bob's Big Boy?
They have?
Did you ever eat at the famous one in Burbank?
I don't believe I have.
It's on the corner on Riverside.
There are a lot of things that I've done in my life and I don't remember. That could be one of them, but I feel like I would have remembered that one.
I think you would have. It's a life changing event.
Yeah.
Backing up, do you know what Bob's Big Boy is? Can you describe it for me? Yes? Okay, you do know You're not just like Bob's Big Boy, I know, but you might just be being friendly. You're like, oh, yeah, I've been there.
I seek Yeah, if I if I don't know something, around't been somewhere. I'll tell you a lot of times, I like to tell you cities are beautiful. I've never been there.
There you go. This was my example. I'm not saying you ever are a liar, but you will occasionally say things.
It may not bear a truth physically entered Bob's Big Boy.
That's impressive. That's really impressive that you've done that. And then you say it was such relish because it's a diner. As you said, it's relish icon from the era of southern California car culture, right, very mid century. It was originally called Bob's.
Pantry, right, Oh, that's no fun.
It was started as a ten stool hamburger stand. Oh yeah. In August nineteen thirty six, his twenty year old named Bob Weighan. He sold his DeSoto roadster. He got three hundred bucks for the car. He then he used that money to make a down payment on the hamburger stand. That's a good investment known as the pantry. He's like a good hamburger stand, same, right, and those were like good hamburgers too back then.
Yeah.
Anyway, so he's like, all right, the pantry is now Bob's pantry.
They weren't shoving donuts, sip in there and stuff.
My point, exact sprinkles, expecting the ingredients, keeping it del chipping.
It and melted cheese exactly gold.
So anyway, after he opens up shop, right, Bob wihen six months in this customer comes in late. Right. They were most likely a bunch of musicians. After a the customer asked for quote, something different, and Bob's like, I got you, brother. Now Bob listened, right, So he goes, let me think about this for a little bit. I got an idea, goes out in the back, slices himself a hamburger bun, Elizabeth, but he slices it into three pieces, not the traditional two pieces of the just cutting it
in half. He maced it, he big macked it. But this was the first time anyone had ever created a top, a bottom, in a middle slice out of a bun. He added then to hamburger patties. Of course, he layered that with cheese, lettuce and a relish based sauce. This is how special pretty much special sauce. And this is how he created the first double deck hamburger. That's what he was called, right boy before this is like, uh hare, I'll put it in context. Four years later, the first McDonald's opened.
Wow.
Right, So Bob's double patty burger was such a hait he gives it a name. He calls it Bob's Big Boy. Right. The name six, of course, as you said. You react immediately, You're like, I want to order a Bob's Big Boy, his new burger innovation. As I said, so popular, Bob renames the restaurant Bob's Big Boy. He's like, just put it on the sign.
I feel like this is the villain origin story of my what's ridiculous, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, Bob's Big Boy, Like put more on there. And then now fast forward here.
We are being even worse, oh terrible, almost insufferable. One would say, So Bob's Big Boy, he's this burger pioneer, right leader in the field, out by himself. Erick, Yeah, totally and for decades and totally leading the field. But this is not bad for a guy Bob Weihan who was voted least likely to succeed while he was in high school.
Wait, they had a least likely to succeed and didn't have one of those. And we had like bullying in our day, I know we had, but we had like you know, most it was all good stuff. You wouldn't be like Biggest, I wouldn't least likely to succeed.
They were a little rough for back then.
It was a little rougher, but maybe we need to bring that back the people up.
Nineteen fifty two, Bob we granted the rights of his name to three brothers in Detroit, and so they franchised Bob's, Big Man and Jack. Yeah, but Manny, Moe and Jack. They decide, you know what, we don't want to call it Bob's because none of us are named Bob. So they open a hundred restaurants, but they replaced the name Bob. They call it Elias Brothers Big Boy.
Oh, that does not ring the way it's about boy.
Exactly right, the alliteration, it's right there, you can hear it. Anyway, they become like the first franchises. There's a lot to follow, right, there's this guy fresh, but it doesn't matter. A bunch of franchises anyway. Big Boys start popping up all around the country. Detroit soon opened, as I said, one hundred Big Boy franchise restaurants bearing the name Elias Brothers Big Boy. Just to imagine that, right, But so they're basically my
point is, they're not just in southern California at this point. Now, if you look at the success of the Big Boy Burger, another burger franchise decides to imitate the double Decker burger in nineteen sixty seven. Nineteen sixty seven, Elizabeth Wild hectic times in America. McDonald's franchisee named James delea Gotti. He borrowed the recipe of the Big Boy Burger and he invents a sandwich called the Big Mac. Now dele Gotti has admitted he stole the idea, although he didn't use
the word steal like I did. He'd said he preferred to compare it to innovation.
And he was a franchise e, yeah, of McDonald's, so he was just but he invented a McDonald's.
Yeah. Then they brought it up to corporate and was run with or whatever. Yeah, delea gotty. He says. This wasn't like discovering the light bulb. The bulbs already there. All I did was screw it in the socket. So there you go. So if McDonald's is stealing from you, you must be doing something right. Right, So back to Bob's Big Boy, Elizabeth. Big Boy. It isn't just the name of the famous double Decker burger. It's also the name of the famous iconic statue that's outside of most
Bob's Big Boy restaurants. Is these the kid with the red checkered overalls. He's got that swooping cow liga and the a devilish look in his eye. All right, So it turns out there was a real big boy. His name was Richard Woodrought. Milk fed he was. He was a milk fed, little cherubic boy. Right, he was six years old. This kid loved cheeseburgers. What cand I tell you? So he would go down to the Bob's Bob's Big Boy, and he'd offer to do chores like sweep the floor
in exchange for burgers. Were like, He's like, yeah, it goes for the deal. Meanwhile, at the exact same moment, he's looking at a mascot that he's asked somebody to draw up for the store, and he's like trying to come up with a name for it. Right, he likes this kid and just almost out of like instinct, pops out of his mouth. He's like, hey, all right, big boy.
He's like, wait a minute. He hears it, right, so is Bob Wien later recalled he was about six and rolls of fat protruded where his shirt and pants were designed to meet. I was so amused by the youngster, jolly, healthy looking and obviously a lover of good things. Deed, I called him Big Boy. The name sticks again. So now this gets an animator from Warner Brothers. Ben Washam.
He's the one who sketches a little drawing of Richard Woodruff wearing checkered overalls and then the kalick pompadoor mischievous gleam in his eye. Boom. The sketch becomes the icon of the Bob's Big Boy Burger chain. Wow, yeah, Soon they make a statue made of this jolly burger loving boy. Bob Wian added statues to all of his Bob's Big Boy restaurants. The statues become as famous and beloved as the Double Drucker for right right, in fact, so much
so I thought this was crazy. I didn't know this. Stan Lee even wrote a Big Boy comic book series made for the restaurant chain.
Does this mean that Big Boy is part of the Marvels universe extended Marvel universe and there could be a Big Boy movie?
There could be? I don't see why not?
All right?
The series The comic book series called The Adventures of Big Boy and debuted nineteen fifty six, at the height of comic book culture. We've covered. Yeah, any kid who visited the restaurants, they were given free comic books and these were so popular they gave out like one million wow over the years. Yeah it was. It's considered one of the longest running comic books in comics history. No way, totally, Anyway. Over the years, Bob's Big Boys had many run ins
with the culture. I'm just going to run over just a couple.
Please do the Beatles they ran them over.
Yeah, do you know what they did? They ran one note, they didn't run whatever. The Beatles have their own booth in the Burbanks Bob's Big Boy. Really true story. Try to say that three times. The Beatles have their own booth in Burbanks Bob's Big Boys.
See, I can't do it. Does Is the Burbank building still standing?
They still have the car shows on Friday down there. Oh we should go. We should do a ridiculous road trip. So your jin totally alright? Pencil that urns. I hope they can hear that. Anyway. Nineteen sixty five, the Beatles were on tour in the US. Right, They're in support of their album help right. The story goes, the Beatles were road weary, hungry, looking for quote, real American dinner. Now in August, the Beatles were in southern California, and they came to Burbank for a good spot for it.
Fab forward, they DeCamp to quote. The last booth on the right is one walks in where the end of the windows face out towards Riverside Drive. So there you go. That's the spot that's known as the Beatles booth, and people go there and like take photos in the Beatles booth. It's there's a there's a plaque that marks the booth as the Beatles booth. Yes, but they weren't the only ones that loved this spot. Do you know us who has a really interesting history with Bob's big boy Elizabeth
Bob Good. Guess he is weird. He's a filmmaker.
Quentin Tarantino.
No, even weirder, John Waters, even the more odd. David Lynch.
Oh, I was like fincher, No.
No, no, no, not that kind. But anyway, if you think about it, makes a lot of sense because of course he loves an iconic American diner, David Lynch. So anyway, celebs, they love to eat it. Bob's Big Boy, right, especially this first iconic location in Burbank, and you could spot Bob Hope grabbing a burger. Debbie Reynolds was known to slurp on a shake or two. But the man you could always reliably spot at the Bob's Big Boy was David Lynch. During the eighties. He ate lunch there every day,
every day. Every day. He arrived always at exactly the same time. Oh also very David Lynch, Yeah, two thirty pm. He liked to arrive at that time because, as he put it, it increased the odds that he would encounter perfection.
Well, I you know I love a late lunch totally.
I know you does. Why to bring it up? So his daily order was never ending cups of coffee, just keep them coming, and a chocolate shake. Now at the time, the La Times, the newspaper, they wrote about this and this they covered. They said that Lynch thought that the sugar was really a beautiful thing. This is back back when he thought he believes such things. He has since changed his mind. He no longer drinks shakes every day. Well and coffee.
Bye, Dian and talk about the cherry pie.
I don't know that's what I expect that ay Anyway, So as he sit there sipping on his shake down in cup after cup of coffee, David Lynch loved to people watch, the tourists, the locals. He died down notes on the Bob's Big Boy napkins. So, yeah, there's a little thing. If you really want to be a David Lynch fan, find one of his Bob's Big Boy napkins. It has a note on it.
Well, I'm going to go get a Bob's Boy, Bob's Big Boy napkin. I'm going to write some fake notes. I'm going to commit a ridiculous crime is auction on eBay that it's a David Lynch note and make us a little cash to fund our road trip to go down to.
Oh.
I love that.
I feel like I'm a I'm like a member of the bloods Now Burbank Bob's everything has to start with me.
Blah blah. So well, here I got one more for you about the Burbank Bob's Big Boy. It has a criminal connection. But that's what we're here to talk about. So let's take a break. When I get back, I'll tell you about his connection to heat.
Oh, Elizabeth, we're back, Saren. Saren, Now I promised you a heat connection.
You really did?
Yeah? What does that even mean? Saren? What's a heat connection?
Is a heat connection?
As anything?
You for asking?
The nineteen ninety five film by Michael Mann So Good came out in nineteen ninety.
Five, Elizabeth, Oh, are we gonna do that?
No?
Not again? But you love the movies, right.
I do love the movie.
Now, Val Kilmer Blonde bank robber movie. Do you remember this? I do? Have you seen it?
Yes?
I am okay? Yeah?
And then the like iconic diner seemed Yeah, he was a big boy.
No, but do you remember remember the epic shootout? Yes? Also not in Bob's Big Boy. But do you remember the getaway driver Dennis Haysburg? Yeah, you remember him.
He later went on to be the president in twenty four.
Extended heat franchise in the World. Yes, So do you remember how he Dennis Haysburg gets shot and killed in the big shootout on the streets of downtown La. Right. He wasn't supposed to be there. Why because he had a job. Where was his job? In a diame Bob's
Big Boy? He was working and that's where de Niro vel Kilmer spot him and they pick him up and they're like, hey man, he was like remember him from like Chino or whatever prison they all went, and they invite him to be the getaway driver, and he makes the worst decision of his life. Right yeh, Bob's Big Boy. I don't know why they allowed that, because the Boss is all racist and weird and like taking advantage of
people because they're on parole. You think Bob's Big would leave us out of this narrative, but nope.
Anyway, Like, hey, listen any publicity.
Speaking of that. The greater appearance in movies Bob's Big Boys when Big Boy went to space.
I have vague memories of this familiar Is it spaceballs?
No, it's on the ether of your mind, just on. I know you remember this visual Big Boy circling.
The Earth.
From what is it from or something? Oh good, guess you're getting closer on the era. I'll give you a hint, just lifting one pink y.
Oh.
Yes, Doctor Evil has himself crygetically frozen. He's launched into orbit around the Earth, circling the planet in an enormous Bob's Big Boy.
He st I've frustrated a lot of people taking a long time.
That's the fun of the trip. So the CEO of Bob's Big Boy at the time was his man named Tony Michaels. Now, when the filmmakers approached him about getting him to sign off on the use of the Burger's chain mascot for the scene in Austin Powers, he had some ideas of how the scene could play out. You know. Yeah, Michaels came up with the exchange about Doctor Evil. And this is the scene decades in the future, right, because the Bob's Big Boy is still circling the earth decades
in the future. Seeing goes some military dudes. He's monitoring his radar. He sees something on the screen. He tells his commanding officer there's an anomaly. The commander looks and he shouts, good God, he's back right, and then what he's looking at is Doctor Evil's enormous big Boy statue. Right, But the subordinate monitoring the radar, he corrects the officer. He's like in many ways, Bob's Big Boy never left sir. He's always offered the same I quality meals at competitive prices.
Is room by the CEO.
Yeah, classic Austin powers. It helps seal the place of the iconic mischievous face Bob's Big Boy statue in American culture. But those of us not in Detroit or southern California, sudden you're like, I like that, Yeah that real? Is that a real thing? They're like, Oh, I got good news for you brother. Anyway, at the moment in twenty twenty four, Bob's Big Boy still around. There are four Bob's Big Boys in California left, Okay original there are
other Big Boys. There are fifty five in Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, and Nevada or Nevada, depending how you like it pronounce. They're also franchises, I know, but some people like saying, hey, I like having fun with those things.
Wasn't you know what home means Nevada? Yeah, home means the hill.
Oh the song of the state song?
Yeah, my cousin, Yeah, it's from Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada. And he would sing that song the state song, right, but he yeah, he learned it in school, but when he would sing it for me, he would sing it Homie.
Nevada instead of home means Nevada.
Was the Hills.
That could Nevada and the Hills exactly. So, uh, there are other Big Boys, And I say the reason I say that is because they don't have the name Bob in front of them. Remember, they have different names because when the franchisees get them, Bob didn't require that they put Bob in front, just that they kept the big.
Boys like Marcus's Big Boy.
It could be it could be Elizabeth Big Boy if you wanted. So there are still franchises in Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky. There's one in Thailand.
Do you know if all the California ones are down south?
Yeah? They are. Yeah, Okay, I'll take you to one. We'll go to the one in Burbank. That's the one to see. There's also one in Norco.
I think, still right.
I think that one has a cowboy boots on.
The and record little bits from that. I like that, and then that way iHeart pays for the whole thing.
Oh, don't tell them. So you can you guess? Are there two hundred and seventy four Big Boys.
In my pocket? I don't know.
Japan.
Yeah, I could totally see that.
Yeah, they got really into it. So they there's a Big Boy Japan Company Limited. They feature the same chubby boy and checkered overalls, the devilish grand calich hair Big Boy. Right, yeah, but want to hear something fun? In Japan, you can order something called the Big Boy Viking Buffet. Wait, that's a that's a combo deal where your meal includes quote all you can eat, salad, soup, rice, and curry. I don't know where the Viking comes in, but I'm into it.
Well, the Vikings went all over the place, Oh they.
Did, I just don't. And the food choice, I don't see it. That's my thing, so to go along with your Bob's Big Boy. The menu, by the way, is also a little different. If you go to a Big Boy in Japan, you can order the Big Boy double decker hamburger, just like you can hear. You can get it with fries, milkshake, or you can also order a sid of spaghetti or or pork steak. They have. It's a whole entree, I believe, or a whole the choice. But enough about food and menya, So but let's get into the crome.
Yes please?
Okay, Well, actually no, I want to tell you one more thing. Sorry, I gotta tell you about this. Did you ever been to Yellowstone?
No, I've always wanted to go, pretending Oh yeah.
No, no, I know, and people talk to you about the Duttons and all that. Right, yes, okay, Well anyway, I won't go there, but there's a big Boy statue there that I'd like to show you. It's in Yellowstone apparently, or just outside of Yellowstone. If you take the entrance of the US Highway fourteen sixteen and twenty entrance into Yellowstone into the National Park, it's about twenty miles west of Cody, and there you can see the WAPPETI Boy, which is big Boy. I guess it's a big boy.
He stands over a bunch of field and they're on the distance of the like high plane.
Cyberglass are made of stone.
It's not a replica. It's it's some artist version. But they took an actual Bob's Big Boy statue and then they rescued it. That's what they rescued it. And then they put it on and they got the person owns the land, so it's not going anywhere, right.
This is kind of like the San Francisco Doggy Diner. Yes, total head head.
Yes, so the guy's name is James Geyer. I may be pronouncing that incorrectly. He's the owner of the what Petee Boy Big Boy, And he says in a quote big boy restaurants for everywhere. And I always wanted to have a big boy and celebrate what's great about the big boy. So he got himself with a big.
Boy celebrating what's good about the big boy. So we can we put this on the road trip. You and I have done a road trip that was pretty honestly we have. Let's do another.
Think we should plan one for the summer, perhaps.
A big boy road trip.
Yeah. So he plants his big boy in his field twenty thirteen. We can go see it. It fast becomes an audity. Everybody locals like at the tourists love it. Then all of a sudden it disappears. In twenty twenty, Elizabeth, the locals O get worry. What about our big boy? What about the peat boy big Boy? Someone starts whispering, all of a sudden, it's been stolen. Oh that's the talk of the town, probably some punk Canadians. But no fear not, Elizabeth, the big Boy was not stolen. And
turns out it also was not knocked over. It wasn't even damage Geyer or Gear. He had taken him down to do some maintenance at a fresh code of paint. When Big Boy was back standing mischievously over the wyoming fields, locals were once again pleased and all was right with the Yeah. Yeah, So what if you want your own
enormous Big Boy statue? You said you want one, right, Sure, Well, it turns out back I looked into this right now, Big Boy in two thousand filed for bankruptcy the restaurant shame, and a lot of restaurants closed, right, So that ended up in a lot of restructure lost the Big Boys. Yeah, like chapter eleven. So now you can often find them for sale from former employees on sites like eBay. Now keep in mind we're talking about something that can be as big as sixteen feet tall.
Enormous.
Yeah, so some of them were like four feet five feet tall, but a lot of them are the classic ones sixteen feet There's one in Cincinnati at the ballpark. Or it was a couple of them dressed as nineteen seventies Cincinnati Red ballplayers. Oh, it was like a little like running guy, right. Yeah, But most of the ones you will find they're just the classic model. Now. For instance, there's currently online Bob's Big Boy statue for sale and
eBay eight thousand dollars. Yeah, I looked the listing, says and I quote sales for an authentic vintage Bob's Big Boy restaurant advertising statue. This Big Boy was at the restaurant located in the city of Thousand Oaks, California, which burned in the nineties. I think you means the restaurant now that the city city. We acquired it from one of the employees and has been in our home since. It measures fifty seven inches tall, thirty four inches wide,
twenty eight inches deep. Normal vintage wear with no major damage to the fiberglass comes with the pressed wood pedestal shown in the pictures. Pictures show the item on sale. Feel free to ask any questions. Expect normal signs of wear on all vintage items. Refer to photographs and description for item condition. Sale is final.
So this is getting into like Batman Megafunco territory.
Oh yeah, totally. But also there's like I found out, there's apparently East Coast Big Boy and West Coast Big Boy. Yes, so there was the traditional version there's the chubby boy with the cal lick pompadour hairstyle wearing the red and white checkered overalls holding the Big Boy sandwich. But there's also the East Coast Big Boy, created by original franchisee Dave Frish I mentioned earlier, who started Frish's Big Boy. Frish is big why it's a mouthful. His version of
the mascot a bit thinner. He wore a cap. He also had striped overalls instead of checkered, and a pair of saddle shoes. He also had red or blonde hair dependent instead instead of the dark hair.
That's the California ones where Chuck's not bally exactly.
So.
West Coast big Boy based on the original Warner Brother animators like a sketch. But Bob Weiean grew to dislike that original sketch. He thought Big Boy had this look of a moron. He said, so in nineteen fifty five he asked for a new mascot image to get drawn. The new mascot becomes the one that becomes the most iconic look that we think of.
That poor little boy that was the model for it. They're like, this one looks like a Moron.
Exactly like, oh man, it's lifelike, but Moron this kid kid So the sixties though, then they go and updated again. When the two different looks merge into one all time big boy to check it outfit, it becomes Cannon the pompadoor Hairdoo. Cannon. Big Boy gets seen sporting a lifted arms, offering the world a cheeseburger. Yeah, but in the health conscious eighties, Elizabeth Cheeseburger gone, so they get rid of the cheeseburger. Now there's a running motif involved, so that's
what you see. He's yeah, he's a jogger. So with all these various styles and restaurants scrapping these big boys, what happens is you have this big Boy statue glut of different styles and ones that are coveted and not so desired. Okaycause also, by the way, a Big Boy graveyard there in Michigan. Yeah, so they apparently the Big Boy headquarters was in Michigan and Warren, Michigan. So these these local cats they'd heard about this rumored big Boy graveyard.
They trek out to the Upper Peninsula woods. They bring a camera with them. They also had an aerial map like you would. And they're determined Elizabeth, and they go out there and they find it. They find the Big Boy Graveyard, and the adventure recalled and I quote it was evident upon arrival that this was indeed a graveyard.
They're on it. This is a graveyard. But in better quotes, he did say, and I give you this, it's not often you come across a molded, fiberglass version of one of your favorite childhood cartoon characters, tipped over in the woods with a big hole in the side of his head. So there you go. They snapped photos of discovery. They're haunted images of Elizabeth. You'd love them.
Bleak was the little boy who was the model. He grew up and then died and they buried him there.
No, no, it's not that kind of graveyard. It's more of like a just toss it over here.
It's more of a midden, because all the little boys who are the live models for the design who died over the years in industrial accident.
A graveyard of broken boys exactly. So. But these cats get home, they post these photos online, they do a little write up about the Bob's Big Boy Graveyard. One week later, they get their first email asking where is it right? People are on it right. By the time the Explorers go back to the Bob's Big Boy Graveyard, statues are gone. They speculated it was cleared out. Someone mus have taken them for scrap metal. I'm guessing they're and then sold. That's exact anyway, So stolen big boys.
Back in the seventies, it was very much a teen prank to steal a big boy statue and like put it on the roof of your high school.
Oh yeah, it's ripe for it totally.
By the end of the decade and the start of the reg and eighties, big boys were then often chained down or cemented to their pedestals, so they weren't stolen for pranks. That stopped would be pranksters, accidental thieves, kids who were opportunists looking for a lark. Right. But during the eighties, rather than steal a big boy and plant them somewhere fun, instead folks started I just outright steal them, and so they started stealing them and keeping them for themselves.
No more putting them on the school. They're justo gone. What happened to a big boy? Ain't gonna see him no more.
He's just in the living room. They caress his cheek every night.
I'm telling well here, for instance.
Is they're not all sixteen feet tall.
No summer seven feet six five feet thing. Imagine a lot of them as being in the five to seven foot range. So one night back in nineteen eighty five and a town called Wenatchi in Washington State, a big Boy was stolen. A man named Chris Hansen. He tells the story of.
This Chris Hansen.
Yeah, quote. The town was much smaller than so something like the disappearance of the big Boy statue was about as scandalous as it got around these parts. One evening, my brother said that several of his friends but not him, of course, had been downtown partying the weekend and it went missing and had decided to big Boy nap it from the restaurant. He also claimed that it was definitely still in one piece and was now residing as a trophy in the wreck room of one of the perpetrators.
One thing I do know is that the statue was never returned.
Now was this one of them seven foot more fans big boys or was it a five footer?
I'm thinking this is a five footer because these kids are picking it up as fiberglass, so it's not super heavy, you know. Yeah, yeah, but little big boy napping is one thing, right, But things turned uglier in nineteen eighty six, Elizabeth, this was this was This is not a crack era crime, but it feels like this new story has crackish front,
crackish right. Dateline, South Burlington, Vermont, May sixth, nineteen eighty six, headline statue stolen shot in head the UPI reported and I quote, someone stole a life sized Big Boy Status you from its display outside a Hamburger restaurant, shot it in the head, and dumped it in some nearby woods. Police said Tuesday, this Big Boy statue mind You was six feet tall. He was also fifty years old. For thirty six hours he was missing, cops began their man hunt.
They scoured the woods. They began to search the rough section of town. I don't know if there's a rough section of South Burlington, but I'm guessing that, you know. They anyway, Yeah, the cops they find the statue in the woods with a single gunshot to the head. Big Boy's been put down execution style, Elizabeth, like like Ronald McDonald called out a hit on his rival.
It's all like in the drizzling rain totally. The guy's like holding the gun and like gives his little soliloquy and the statue stands their stone face.
It's a one tier running down his cheek in the rain, distguised in the rain.
And then like the investigators show and they're like, oh, we can tell from the stipling this was a close range execute. He didn't suffer.
And you can see here the car tracks looks like someone watched it occur. There's an oil patch that Ronald McDonald puts the window back upt We find it size eighteen shoe. So anyway, this burger turf war that ends up, Captain Ray McGee says he'd been shot in the head, right in the ear, so big boy. He gets airlifted out of the woods. No, but he wasn't airlift. He gets carried out, taken back to the restaurant. He gets hosed down, hand washed, bullet hole repaired. Elizabeth meanwhile getting.
The Gambino crime family will not take down Bob's Big bull.
Uh No, not as long as they got some fiberglass.
To feather out Bondo. He fixed that.
Into eighteen hours. So the South Burlington Police. Mind you, they have no suspects from motives in the case. Anyway, the story has a happy ending though, the big Boy was brought back to Greek customers.
So I know.
Right, Let's take a little break, Elizabeth, and after this I'll tell you even more grizzly story of a big boy kidnap boy. Hey Elizabeth, Hey, we're back. Hey, you want to hear some more about big boys? I big boy do So this next one takes place in the nineties. Okay, you've been a chronological for you the nineties, specifically March nineteen ninety five. Okay, dateline Toledo, Ohio headline Police cracked the Big Boy Caper.
Oh a big Boy caper.
Yeah, six foot tall, three hundred pound big Boy statue was missing. It was stolen from a Toledo franchise. Detective Ron Scanlon was assigned the case. His job find and rescue big Boy, which means, Elizabeth, your job is to close your eyes and to picture.
It as a close.
It's Friday morning in Toledo, Ohio. You are the manager for one of the ten big Boys in the city of t Only this morning you wish you weren't because this morning, you arrived at the restaurant to open up for the day, and you discover tragedy. Your big boy is missing. How could that be? You had the feet of the Big Boy statue encased in cement to prevent exactly the sort of Big Boy napping. You're a good manager, Elizabeth.
But now you look at where your big boy once stood, and all that's left is his pair of shiny black shoes. That's right, the thieves left behind Big Boy's feet. You gasp in horror at the side of Big Boy's shiny black shoes and chopped off feet. The restaurant had been closed for remodeling. You thought he would be safe. As the morning birds whistle and call, you stroll the outside of the restaurant looking for any clues. You spy your first indicator of a crime. It's Big boys severed head.
You called nine to one one. You tell the operator what you found. You're starting to break up, you say, almost stream up conscious. I couldn't believe that someone would would do that to Him's friendly Holy smially.
Ready to greet our customers.
I mean, what kind of person would do this to him? The sight of Big Boy's severed head has done you no good. The nine one one operator tries to calm you down, to get you to answer her questions. But you're just too keyed up, you say, as if to yourself. Nine times out of ten, if the big Boy is missing, he's usually down at the University of Toledo during Fred's season. They do this as a prank. The nine to one operator says, okay, okay, do you think it was the
fraternities this time, ma'am? If so, is there a fraternity you suspect might have you interrupt the nine one one operator not not this time, because I just found his head. Oh no, The nine to one operator says, real emotion colors her voice. Police arrive on the scene, Elizabeth. A pair of patrol cars roll up. They silence their sirens when they see you. They park. You've had time to walk the parking lot. You show the responding officers what
all you found. You show them the severed head. You take them over to where you also found the arms. You also found a note. It's like a ransom note. The letters are cut out from magazines and glued to the paper. You hand the ransom style note to the police. One of the officers reads it aloud, big boy is dead. You hand him the other note you found. He reads that one aloud too, big boy is almost dead. Never mind now he's dead. Huh tape to the big boys.
But is another note. The cop reads that one aloud as well. Strip steak two twenty nine a pound. Sergeant Richard Murphy chuckles to himself. You shoot him a dirty look, He apologizes with just his eyes they soft, and he says, well, at least they had a sense of humor. Now, naturally, you don't find your dead dismembered big boy to be so funny. No one of the notes identifies the thieves. The cop reads it aloud, the pimps of pimpliness. Hm, you roll your eyes. Sergeant Murphy turns and asks, are
you familiar with these pop so Elizabeth. Later on, before the press gathers to cover this local news story, which they do this, these quotes are all from the local news, Sergeant Murphy he does a quick five like basically a comedy set for the reporter. Sergean Murphy. He's on a roll, right, so he tells the press this is a sad, sad day for the city when somebody would desecrate a hagloaed
symbol of the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. He then furrowed his brow for effect like he's just like so tough, like you know, like one of those Brolind boys might do it. And then then he grinned to let the reporters in on his joke before he said, it's really hard to keep a straight face when you talk about it. We've been trying to put him up together again, like humpty dumpty. I think he looks pretty good for a
guy who's been cut up. So yeah, this stolen's Big Boy statue was valued at three three hundred dollars, which means these purps could have been charged with grand theft. That's a felony punishable by two years in jail. However, days later, the adolescent thieves were found caught, unmasked, the pimps of Pimplinis were collared. Elizabeth and Detective Scanlon informed the press that the young thieves never intended to arm
the Big Boy. Things just spun out of control. Yes, and I quote from him, it was just gonna be a plan to take the big Boy and move him, Detective scandal And told the press, And but things got out of hand. They took the head and cut it off, and then the arms, and then the legs. The initial prank became malicious. So in the end, Elizabeth, each of the unidentified underage suspects they were possibly going to be charged with a third degree misdemeanor and punishable by sixty
days in jail. But I'm betting the judge did not throw the book at them and chalked it up to a mostly harmless prank. Cut to one year later, May ninth, nineteen ninety six, dateline, Tucson, Arizona, headline Dismembered big Boy Bob found an abandoned motel. Oh god, he started to get darker and darker right now, Big Boy's body is found in an abandoned hotel. Like he's Bob Crane, right, So what does that mean for this story? Well, the story this, I gotta give it up to the writer
on this one. The second sentence of this story is quote the east Side Big Boy Restaurant's Big Bob isn't so big anymore after kidnappers literally cut off the grinning figure at the knees. Oh God, just comes in hard hitting. This is like yellow journalism, right, it's like, you know, like a Gangbuster's era.
Well, imagine if like you're reading these headlines and you're not familiar with the restaurant exactly.
That's what I love about it, Like, oh my god, the grinning figure at the knees he got cut off. Honey, I will have some eggs. Yes, So the Big Boy restaurant manager discovers that her spots Big Boy had been gaffled, and since the statues are largely chained or cemented to a pedestal, the thief or the thieves in this case had to saw the Big Boy free of the foundation. Later, when local radio stations reported on the Big Boy napping, a loyal customer went out looking for the missing mascots.
They found of Elizabeth good News add an abandoned motel, oh god, or rather what was left?
Yeah.
Oh, the customer discovered and I quote found poor Bob's legs from the knees down and maybe an arm and a parking lot at a boarded up abandoned motel in a park story and they quote police were still looking for the rest of the victim one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty pounds before Micah formerly five feet tall with huge eyes and big brown wavy hair, red and white checkered pants, black shoes, and a white
big Boy T shirt. So the general manager's name was Omar Corey, and he'd been worried after he'd heard about the Big Boy napping Elizabeth and because he'd also knew about the dismemberment that went down in Toledo the year before.
Sure that gets through the Big Boy grape vine?
Are you kidding me? Active grapevine? Corey told a reporter, I hope that doesn't happen to this guy, but it comes back in one piece. I bet the we'll not press charges, right, So he was trying to let him know, just give me back my big vie. Yeah, Yeah, Fortunately that did not happen, Elizabeth. Yeah, he was one of a matching set of two Bobs. The stolen and dismembered Bob was quote one of two identical running bob's Bob's who look as if they're running away. The other is
the burger serving bob holding up a gigantic yeah. So Corey added that Bob's twin is wondering where the other guy went. Sad to break up a couple like that, you know. But Elizabeth, guess who has a new nickname. That's right, me Burger Serving Bob. Please use that in all public settings. So as it turns out, this latest theft was not the franchise's first stolen Bob.
Oh.
Three years earlier, Elizabeth, my man Burger Serving Bob was stolen. Yeah, he was found alone in the desert, the running Bob, one of the pair. He was stolen and dismembered. Yeah, he'd previously been stolen two years earlier. He was found in someone's backyard. Yeah. So omar Corey. He gets why the cops like to write up their silly little police reports about a stolen big boy, and that radio stations
like to get off their jokes too. But to the people who love the missing Bob, to the people like Corey who have to worry late, stay up night warning if their Bob will make it through the night, it's not funny and I quote, it's like losing a member of the family. Yeah. Speaking of radio, Elizabeth, you ever heard of their old radio morning show, Mark and Bryan sound vaguely familiar on the edges there. Yeah, they were
big in the nineties and the early odts. They had a syndicated morning show, usually on like a like a classic radio stations. Back when I was a painter and i'd be stuck in LA traffic, I listened to them sometimes regrettably. Anyway, I know who they are, and they
used to have their own stolen Big Boy. It was a legend that they stole from a local restaurant, I don't know which one, and then they would have fun with it doing the most like outlandish like morning show kind of guys things like Brian said, and I quote, over the last six years, he's gone skydiving, bungee cord, jumping down the White rapids. We even took him to Vegas and slung shot him across the fountain. Evil Canievel jumped.
Like this is radio though when.
They described it very well, forty feet above and now he's coming down me. They did it for.
Radio, Big Boy. They just have you know, sound effects. I think Whitewater raft totally.
It's like some like NPR Saturday shows, just like they're just making stuff up. Anyway, it is full of this action. Bob doesn't exist so anyway. Turn of the century, in two thousand, things turned even more comical and more dire for the Big Boys around the nation. Boy Hell Times published the story examining the trend of big Boy thefts and other statuary based crimes, but not only around the nation, around the world. Elizabeth, because apparently it was a thing.
I didn't know this, but dateline January thirty, first, two thousand, headline Stolen Moments with Bob's Big Boy and the Garden Nomes.
Of France Stolen Moments.
Yeah, I know, it sounds so dirty, sounds like like a Harlequin novel that you could go anyway. The news story opened with tales of quote, a growing plague of innocent statues being kidnapped and even dismembered by ruthless criminals. The source for this claim was Garden Design Magazine, the periodical I had written.
About next quotative journalism, the.
Front Deliberation than a the Jadin or Deliberation Front for garden homes.
Yeah.
A group that steals lawn statues, takes them to a secret camp for liberation rituals and repainting, then leaves them in odd locales, squatting on cliffs, crouching along highways, or floating aboard rafts on lakes.
Liberation ritual Yeah, I don't know.
The leader of the Liberation Front said, and I quote, we off fight thing against bad taste as ibadi by the ze garden gnome of the proletariat household.
Oh my god. Yes.
So in Germany similar provocateurs, but not only steal the lawn gnomes, but they would take them on vacations, pose them for photos, and then they send the photos to the owners of their stolen nomes living a better life than them and some neighbors back in Boden. Boden it gets a photo over a gardenome enjoying himself at taj Bahology's like a So now that's all fun, right, But
meanwhile the La Times story covered the American version of this. Right, the paper focused on Tucson, which where you just were there. It is a rash of big boy thefts and dismemberments, apparently, But instead the t Times they decided to focus on a rival Burger Channelizabeth the story of a Ronald McDonald's statue that quote flaming red hair, bright yellow jumpsuit, striped socks, and red clown shoes. Last spotted joy riding on East
Broadway in the back of a silver blue CJ seven jeep. Oh, Wowlizabeth, there's a.
Lot of fast food rivalry in Tucson. That's home of the Sonora exactly.
That's why I called your attention. It's the food rivalry home of the Southwest. But that wasn't all, Elizabeth, because this paper also ran a litany of recent statue nappings in this ongoing turf war. And I quote Tony the Wonder Horse, who disappeared from a monument to actor Tom Mix. A second Wonder Horse was kidnapped a few years later, also never to be seen again. A pair of wooden
lions stolen from the sanctuary at Missioning Sand Xavier. Several cast aluminum fish abducted from a sculpture at the University of Arizona. A carved wooden bear chopped off at its feet and swiped from a business. A Bob's Big Boy mascot taken from the front of a restaurant and recovered in pieces days later. That's by you, and giant statues of Winnie the Pooh and er speared it away from
a Christmas display. Oh man, I'm telling you. But that was not all, because they also cited the theft of a quote four foot tall Pillsbury dough boy, a seven hundred pound captain with a parrot on his shoulder, assorted religious statues, and a two hundred and fifty pound fiberglass dolphin that once stood at Marine Land. What's going on? In two something happens? Those statues are safe. So my favorite part in this news story is.
Right now, like the idolatry of it all.
They pathologize the crimes and they ask for an opinion of a psychiatrist. What is driving this craze? Enter doctor Sigmoid Flexure.
Wait, Sigmoid Sigmoid not Sigmund Sigmoid Flexure, noted as the author of quote men who love statues and the statues who are indifferent toward.
Them, Doctor Sigmoid Flexure, which almost absolutely has to be a made up name because when you look him up or his book, the only result is this one La Times news story. So I'm thinking somebody got a over on the Times reporter in Tucsons.
Yes, or let's bust him for making.
Hey, I ain't going to do that to him, but hey, they told the paper that statue thieves were driven by their psychology, their past traumas, and that by stealing a big boy or your own, Ronnie McDonald. They were attempting to fix a wound in the past, as doctor Sigmoid Fletcher put it, and I quote Elizabeth most had cold and distant parents and are trying to recreate that relationship with a statue. And he concluded that this is really a cry for love.
Now, I wrote for a daily paper needing for a question. I had to do stuff like when you do like a little feature like that and it's a dumb thing and you got to call people and.
Ask for yeah, and you couldn't get one.
I had to do a New Year's Eve thing about like hangover cures. I'm calling bars.
And they were just playing along.
Yeah, or they were just being so creepy and make up.
A bar owner. Huh, you make up a battle.
But I mean you get you get tempted.
You can see why somebody might come up with doctor Boid Flexure.
And make up that book.
The book is the giveaway, right that title has got to be fair men who love statues and the statues who are indifferent toward them. How many people need that book, Doctor Sigmoid Flexuer, come anyway, Well, it really isn't this. I swear to God it's in the story. But Elizabeth, would you ever steal a statue as a desperate cry for love?
No?
Well, if so, what statue would you cry?
If I had to steal a statue, like, I.
Would probably steal one of them, babe, the big Blue Ox statues like I don't need to.
Go Dinosaur in Dixon, California.
Yes, on the side Milk Farm Road there. Yeah, just a little past that.
Yes, i'd steal that. I don't want I mean it would upset people. I wouldn't want to steal a statue that would like really hurt people's feelings.
No, No, we're just wipe swiping something.
Maybe I wouldn't do that because I'd be upset if someone stole that.
Well, just to close this out, Elizabeth.
I think it's gone already.
No, I think it's that they moved it back. I think it's still there. So we've covered statue theftist comedy, Yeah, statue theftist tragedy, yeah, and statue theftist psychological compulsion must cover statue theftist marketing stunt.
Oh.
In twenty twenty, stealing a big Boy statue became a great way to drive some engagement and get some eyes on your new product line dateline June thirtieth, twenty twenty, headline who stole Norco Bob's Big Boy Statue? So after Noorko raise.
Up Norco California.
After one of the last remaining original Bob's Big Boys disappeared, locals were concerned. Elizabeth. The statue, which adorned the Norco franchise was iconic. Yeah, I mentioned it before, right in social media, people, they lit up all these stories of the stolen Big Boy. Everybody's worry, Where's Big Boy? What up to Big Boy? Who took Big Boy? Do you have Big Boy? Anyway? Soon enough, footage of the thieves making off with Big Boy surfaces. It's uploaded online. Everybody's like, oh,
they got Big Boy? Who are they? Surveillance camera footage records four men working in a coordinated effort to disconnect and lift the two thousand pound Big Boy. This is one of them, like long daddy big Boys, real big big Boys?
Was it members of the Burdeaux Hell's Angels?
Good guess No, they would not deign to be involved in this crime. The thieves loaded the statue into pickup truck and they drove off The Big Boys later discovered unharmed in a field. Yes, it was safe. The thieves then came forward. They posted on their Facebook page and I quote, Okay, we're busted. Yeah it's true. We were in Cahusa Bob's Big Boy Norco to borrow one of their iconic Big Boys statues. We hold a centement, place
our arms for a big Boy. We will be returning Big Boy to the Norco location later this evening, along with a monetary donation to help them feed frontline heroes within their community. Thanks big Boy, what a blast. Support your local big Boy, and if you steal one, treat it with the respect it's earned over all these years. As kids, we crave their burgers, and as adolescents we stole their statue. So how better to demonstrate the two
thousand pound payload of our decked truckbed drawer system. Then with a real live Big Boy himself, we apologize for anie stress this may have caused. You see your local big boy hashtag who stole Big Boy marketing? Yes, for a two thousand pound payload of the deck truckbed drawer system, You're welcome decked. Oh my god, there you gobeth. One long strange ride stolen Big Boys. What pray tells our ridiculous takeaway here?
I would say for to say, if I ever have a Big Boy franchise, let's just say.
When, yeah, when, Let's be positive, I would.
The statue, right, I would have a skeletal system of fiberglass installed inside and then have it just filled with red jello. And then when someone goes to cut it, then all the jello spills out and they see the balls, and they just lose it and we killed the Oh my god, he was a real boy.
Big Boy came to life and we killed to see.
I mean, I think that's the only answer here. That is the one way to address this.
Elizabeth Pinocchio, big Boy.
Saren, Yes, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Let's say that again one more time? I missed that. Could you say it one more time? My good ear, Hello Elizabeth, thank you for asking my ridiculous takeaway? Is big Boy? Right?
Yeah? Come on, it's big Boy.
I mean he's a big boy right right there, big Boy. No, In all honesty, I love the big Boys, and like, all I want to do now is to go down and take you to the Bob's Big Boy in Burbank. On riverside so you can get the full experience. Sit there in the Beatles booth and just get ridiculous with it. Yes, hey, you in the mood for a talkback?
I have always in the mood for talkback.
One of them up, producer, Dave, you got one?
Oh oh my god?
Did you just see that?
I went cheat.
From one former petty Criminal to another. I thought you were dead. Then I heard you were hosting this podcast, which I have to say isn't exactly a good way to lay low after that nasty business in Libya. Anyway, kiss Elizabeth for me. I gotta go just playing. Ain't going jacke itself?
Yeah?
Is that DV Cooper.
That's the best ever. You just made all my dreams come true. It's all time Petty Criminal told me I thought you were dead. Thank you, brother, I appreciate you. You the rudest or rude dudes. I did not kiss Elizabeth because I'm not gonna interrupt her space in her personal boundaries like that just for a bit. But other than that, thank you, well, that was great. As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime, Twitter, Instagrams and
so forth and so on. We have a website that we do like Ridiculous Crime dot com and we love your talkback, so please go down load the iHeart app and hit us up there. Email us if you like a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Always right, Dan, Dear Elizabeth. Once again, we'll catch you next crime. Thanks for listening. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarahn Burnett, produced and edited by Bob's Biggest Happiest Boy
Dave Kustin. Research is by Viking Buffet of Fishonado's Marissa Brown and Andrea Song Sharpen Tear. Our theme song is by Thomas Bob's Fish Taco Boy, Lee and Travis I prefer Nations, Giants, Burger of East Bay Loyal Dotty. The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot at Mister Andre. Executive producers are Ben Japan Has the Best Big Boys Bowlin' and original Flavor Bob's Big Boy Diehard.
No Brown, Ridicous Crime, Say It one More Time, Giquous Crime.
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,