A landlord is offering £500 worth of free beer as a reward for anyone who can help catch thieves who were caught on camera stealing a rare hand-carved MASK from his pub.
Keith Marsden was left stunned after spotting three brazen crooks on CCTV casually walking out of the boozer with the bulky 3tf piece of artwork on Friday night.
They snatched the giant Maori mask from the wall of the Tiki Bar in the beer garden of the Prince of Wales pub in Moseley, Birmingham at around 11.20pm.
CCTV footage then shows one of the middle-aged men walking out of the busy venue with the valuable mask hidden up his jumper while his two accomplices can be seen smiling.
Yesterday, the pub boss called on the customers to hand back the treasured Tiki mask and even offered an amnesty if it was returned by midnight today (Thurs).
Writing on the venue’s Facebook page, Mr Marsden said: “We will identify and prosecute anyone who does not respect a place we have worked so hard to create.
“We have all been out, had one too many and done things we regret.
“Bring back the Tiki mask and we will move on.
“If it does not come back by tomorrow’s deadline we will be trying very hard to find, prosecute and ban these guys from all pubs in Moseley. We will succeed.
“The mask is very unusual. We have lots of regular customers and we do not recognise these guys.
“We just want people to show a bit of respect because the mask is no use to anyone unless they are a collector. It is probably in a skip somewhere now.”
Tiki masks are hand-carved Maori-originated images of the human form which are traditionally used to mark boundaries of sacred sites.
Mr Marsden also offered a reward for information leading to the safe return of the valuable artwork.
He added: “We will offer a £500 bar tab for information which results in getting the mask back successfully.
“Otherwise we will report it to the police.”
