Someone swiped the faces from the iconic No-Tel Motel sign late last week.
In 2022, the City of Tucson bought the motel at 2425 N. Oracle Road, and tore it down to build Milagro on Oracle, a low-income senior housing complex. The yellow, rectangular sign, long a symbol for the seemingly dirty deeds that went on at the motel, remained.
It was scheduled to officially come down on Saturday. It was to be transported to the Ignite Sign Art Museum, 331 S. Olsen Ave.
When Jude Cook, owner of Cook & Company Sign Makers and founder of the museum, showed up with a crew at 7 a.m., the frame was still there, but the faces of the sign, arguably the most important part of any iconic sign, were long gone.
Cook said when he asked the staff onsite what happened, they told him that a man had shown up in a bright orange vest on Friday and told them that he was there to pick up the sign.
Assuming he was from the museum, the staff let him take the faces, Cook said.
Tucson Police have confirmed that the sign faces were stolen and an investigation is underway.
Cook said the rest of the sign was taken down on Saturday and transported to the sign museum.
