Someone Stole the Spotted Pig’s Pig

The spotted pig is gone now — literally speaking. On Monday after 8 p.m., a day after the embattled West Village restaurant the Spotted Pig closed its doors, somebody stole the pig figurine hanging outside the restaurant.

In a security video of the incident, a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a face mask grabs the bench outside the Pig, cavalierly drags it to the hanging pig, pulls the pig down, and tucks it under his arm. The thief then walks away, bringing the bench back. See the whole thing happen around the :53 second mark in the video below. Police are investigating this week’s theft, an NYPD spokesperson says.

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Zero Point Zero Productions

The restaurant closed after service Sunday night, weeks after a $240,000 financial settlement between owner Ken Friedman and 11 ex-employees who accused him of misconduct such as forced kissing and retaliation for sexual harassment reports. The state attorney general’s office investigation found the Pig “maintained a hostile workplace.”

But the restaurant has struggled since 2017, when an investigation on the Spotted Pig and its environment exposed a litany of allegations of sexual misconduct. Friedman split with his longtime business partner and chef April Bloomfield, though the divestment process continues. On Monday, Friedman said the restaurant had been “running in the red for a long time.”

Friedman says the pig’s been stolen once before.