A $500 reward has been offered for the return of the stolen historic arrow sign that hung outside the Olympic Athletic Club's parking garage on Ballard Avenue. It was installed in the 1930's, when a bowling alley opened there.

"It's a felony, but we don't want to see anyone get in trouble. We just want our sign, no questions asked," said Mark Durall, the club's general manager. He said the club stays open 24-hours a day.

"But we close at 7 p.m. Saturdays until 8 a.m. Sundays, and I noticed it missing Sunday morning, Feb. 24 because I always park under the sign.

"The police think more than one person climbed up a ladder or onto the building and removed the sign with a cutting torch or saw," he said. He recalled getting two phone calls from a man offering to buy the sign for $500, just one week before it disappeared and suspects a connection.

The club's owners, Jim and Debera Riggle, budgeted $10,000 to restore the sign. Durall said it's a unique treasure because it used synchronized chaser bulbs. It was to hang outside the hotel they are planning to build adjacent to their club, where the garage and second old structure sit.

"It was going to serve as a friendly reminder to people walking past that some things haven't changed in Ballard. Now we can't do that because someone stole it. It's disheartening, " said Durall.

But he is optimistic the sign will be found.

"People in the community have been great; looking in cars, garbage bins, asking around. It's been like a big Easter egg hunt."

Durall asks that if anyone has any information about the sign to call him at the club, 789-5010.