There has been a great disturbance in the Force from Mount Washington — at least when it comes to the fate of a community landmark that helps support the neighborhood fire station.
Since around the year of our [Sith] Lord 1999, a nostalgic promotional Pepsi vending machine bearing characters from the Star Wars prequel “Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” including the Padawan Anakin Skywalker and the Dug podracing phenom Sebulba, has sat outside a Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire Station on the slope of Virginia Avenue on Mt. Washington.
It has remained there with one side resting on wooden planks to keep it upright.
Owned by the department, the machine has become an unlikely draw for the neighborhood because its design and subject matter evoke the comforting cultural feel of the new millennium among those who grew up during that time.
Earlier this week, the machine was declared missing in numerous posts on the Pittsburgh subreddit. It has been replaced by a non-operational machine that locals say features a different number of buttons.
The panels feature painted recreations of the graphics that comparatively look whipped up by Jar Jar Binks after he got his hand caught in the energy beam of Skywalker’s pod racer.
Some of the most powerful internet Jedi point out that there had been significant rumblings regarding the machine leading up to its disappearance.
In July, a social media influencer with around 1 million followers each on TikTok and Instagram, Braeden Days, whose schtick features videos centered on highly dramatized or potentially fully staged “heisting” of local landmarks across the country, indicated via a Facebook reel that the vending machine had become a personal target. The link to that reel now returns a “This content isn’t available right now” message.
Also this week, Days allegedly posted a video with the replacement machine with the words “Job done. The original is safe and sound and in my possession” overlaid on a shot of two individuals apparently moving the replacement machine in place during the day.
However, Days either never posted the second video in the first place or has since removed it. No follow-up third video had been released as of Friday afternoon.
“We don’t know anything about it,” said a fire station employee who answered the phone at the station on Friday morning.
As a truck returned from a call on Friday, a firefighter inside the garage was asked about the missing machine.
“That vending machine? It’s right there,” he said, gesturing toward the machine with a smile. “We don’t know. It’s MIA, man.”
When asked about the situation informally, Emily Bourne, public information officer with Pittsburgh Public Safety, referred to the situation as “the heist.”
Messages seeking further information from Days, Pittsburgh Police and the Pittsburgh Fire Department for further information were not returned by time of publication.
By Friday around noon, the machine’s top left corner was adorned with a golden sign reading “Fill the Boot for MDA,” referencing a campaign wherein fire stations across the country compete to raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. It also bore a QR code linking to Pittsburgh PA L0001’s donation page. At 1:30 p.m. Friday, the local tally sat at just $130 of a $1,000 goal.
One resident, Mike Whittemore, 40, claimed to have seen the moment the machine was taken.
“I think it’s crazy the amount of hype it’s been getting all over the internet. For something that’s been here that long and for people to be up in arms about it, it’s pretty wild,” said Whittemore. “It’s funny, I was actually walking my daughter when I saw them taking it away. There was actually a guy in a Pepsi shirt and he had a moving truck right here. Some of the locals that hang out down the street helped him and the other workers move it into the van, I saw.”
“The guy had a legit Pepsi shirt on and all that. I guess [Pepsi] might have something worked out with it. Who knows? There wasn’t any big heist or anything like that … He had the replacement with him as well.”
Amid the mystery and the he-said, she-said dynamic, one thing is certain: people love the machine.
That includes 36-year-old Gabe Burchfield of Oil City, who had just discovered the news as he was coming by to take a picture with it.
“I guess it’s kitschy, but it’s nice to have these landmarks that say ‘Hey, it’s a city, but it’s still a small town.’ Then you find out that somebody has to take it and make it their own. It’s just kind of enraging,” said Burchfield. “Everybody has enough reasons to be upset. It would be great to know it’s just kind of a joke.”
The machine, he said, reminded him of a simpler time.
“I’ve walked past several times and been like, ‘Hey, what are we going to do as a community to keep this thing because I don’t want to see the Anakin Skywalker graphic go,’” said Burchfield. “I think, more importantly, that’s like ‘98, ‘99. That was lifetimes ago already. I’m only 36, but it’s kind of funny to me that you can get so attached to some piece of nostalgia.”
Whittemore concurred.
“I hope someone just comes out with an official statement and puts it all to bed,” he said.
Whether an actual theft, part of a grander social media plot or a fundraising tactic, it wouldn’t be the first time the machine has made the news cycle. In 2022, Pepsi donated a year’s worth of pop and $10,000 to the station.
No matter what the nature of the situation ends up having been, it all still makes for a far better story than a shoehorned heist on a casino planet.
Looking at you, Disney.