But mysteriously, the sign went missing on the Green Onion\u2019s last day of business on Sunday Nov. 30.<\/p>\n
![\"Space](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TDB-L-STOLEN-SIGN-1204-01_3b63d5.jpg\")
Space where the sign once stood on the Green Onion Restaurant in San Pedro (Photo Courtesy of San Pedro Heritage Museum)<\/p>\n
Its disappearance came up for discussion on Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the monthly San Pedro Property Owners Business Improvement District meeting. The suspicion is that it could have been stolen.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s the case, PBID members said, they just want the sign to be returned, no questions asked, to their office at 390 W. Seventh St., in San Pedro.<\/p>\n
But no one knows for sure what happened to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just amazed,\u201d Eileen Boblak, the general manager of the restaurant for many years, said in a Wednesday phone interview. \u201cI just can\u2019t imagine it could be stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n
But with the PBID trying to reconstruct what could have happened to it, there has been some speculation that movers or other crews helping to clean out the building may have taken it down \u2014 and even, perhaps, tossed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow everybody is remembering something different,\u201d Boblak said. \u201cMy sister thought she saw it leaning against the building (on Sunday).\u201d<\/p>\n
New, more contemporary lighted signs have long gone up to identify the restaurant, relegating the older one to a less prominent outer wall of the Green Onion along Beacon Street.<\/p>\n
But at some point, it was simply gone. When Joshua Stecker, president of the San Pedro Heritage Museum<\/a>, showed up at 9 a.m. Monday to make plans to remove and take the sign that had been given to the museum, it was nowhere to be found. He and restaurant personnel searched for it in the darkened building \u2014 the electricity had been turned off \u2014 but never found it.<\/p>\n Stecker said he suspects there\u2019s an innocent explanation.<\/p>\n \u201cThat sign was not in good condition and it could have been trashed,\u201d he said on Wednesday, noting that the moving deadline left the place looking ransacked as it was being cleared out amid much chaos. As anyone who has moved knows, things quickly turn into an upheaval. Stecker said he thinks that likely explains how the sign vanished.<\/p>\n Other than nostalgia, Stecker said, the sign had no real value.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t copper; it was just rusted metal but it meant something to a lot of people,\u201d Stecker said. \u201cBut we did get a (Green Onion) barstool, menus and one of their inside awnings (donated) in hopes of one day being able to display those.\u201d<\/p>\n The museum dedicated to highlighting San Pedro culture<\/a> has a growing collection of port town memorabilia in storage, including some items from the old Ports O\u2019 Call Village. But it is a nonprofit, volunteer group<\/a> and so far, a place hasn\u2019t been found \u2014 that is affordable \u2014 in which to display it all, Stecker said.<\/p>\n No security cameras captured the precise view of the sign over the hours it vanished and no police report had been filed as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n If the sign was stolen, it would presumably be for its hometown sentimental value \u2014 but there\u2019s no evidence that\u2019s what happened to it.<\/p>\n![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TDB-L-STOLEN-SIGN-1204-01_9fb8c2-rotated-1.jpg\")
Sign that original hung on the Green Onion Restaurant\u2019s first location at 1722 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro. It came with the restaurant when it moved to 145 W. Sixth St., San Pedro (Photo Courtesy of San Pedro Heritage Museum)<\/p>\n