There has been a great disturbance in the Force from Mount Washington \u2014 at least when it comes to the fate of a community landmark that helps support the neighborhood fire station.<\/p>\n
Since around the year of our [Sith] Lord 1999, a nostalgic promotional Pepsi vending machine bearing characters from the Star Wars prequel \u201cEpisode I: The Phantom Menace,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
It has remained there with one side resting on wooden planks to keep it upright.<\/p>\n
Owned by the department, the machine has become an unlikely draw<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, the machine was declared missing<\/a> 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 It has been replaced by a non-operational machine that locals say features a different number of buttons.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s pod racer.<\/p>\n Some of the most powerful internet Jedi point out that there had been significant rumblings regarding the machine leading up to its disappearance.<\/p>\n In July, a social media influencer with around 1 million followers each on TikTok and Instagram, Braeden <\/a>Days<\/a>, whose schtick features videos centered on highly dramatized or potentially fully staged \u201cheisting\u201d of local landmarks across the country, indicated<\/a> via a Facebook reel that the vending machine had become a personal target. The link to that reel now returns a \u201cThis content isn\u2019t available right now\u201d message.<\/p>\n Also this week, Days allegedly posted a video with the replacement machine with the words \u201cJob done. The original is safe and sound and in my possession\u201d overlaid on a shot of two individuals apparently moving the replacement machine in place during the day.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d said a fire station employee who answered the phone at the station on Friday morning.<\/p>\n As a truck returned from a call on Friday, a firefighter inside the garage was asked about the missing machine.<\/p>\n \u201cThat vending machine? It\u2019s right there,\u201d he said, gesturing toward the machine with a smile. \u201cWe don\u2019t know. It\u2019s MIA, man.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about the situation informally, Emily Bourne, public information officer with Pittsburgh Public Safety, referred to the situation as \u201cthe heist.\u201d<\/p>\n Messages seeking further information from Days, Pittsburgh Police and the Pittsburgh Fire Department for further information were not returned by time of publication.<\/p>\n By Friday around noon, the machine\u2019s top left corner was adorned with a golden sign reading \u201cFill the Boot for MDA,\u201d referencing a campaign wherein fire stations across the country compete to raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy <\/a>Association<\/a>. It also bore a QR code linking to Pittsburgh PA L0001\u2019s donation page<\/a>. At 1:30 p.m. Friday, the local tally sat at just $130 of a $1,000 goal.<\/p>\n One resident, Mike Whittemore, 40, claimed to have seen the moment the machine was taken.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s crazy the amount of hype it\u2019s been getting all over the internet. For something that\u2019s been here that long and for people to be up in arms about it, it\u2019s pretty wild,\u201d said Whittemore. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe guy had a legit Pepsi shirt on and all that. I guess [Pepsi] might have something worked out with it. Who knows? There wasn\u2019t any big heist or anything like that \u2026 He had the replacement with him as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid the mystery and the he-said, she-said dynamic, one thing is certain: people love the machine.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess it\u2019s kitschy, but it\u2019s nice to have these landmarks that say \u2018Hey, it\u2019s a city, but it\u2019s still a small town.\u2019 Then you find out that somebody has to take it and make it their own. It\u2019s just kind of enraging,\u201d said Burchfield. \u201cEverybody has enough reasons to be upset. It would be great to know it\u2019s just kind of a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n The machine, he said, reminded him of a simpler time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve walked past several times and been like, \u2018Hey, what are we going to do as a community to keep this thing because I don\u2019t want to see the Anakin Skywalker graphic go,\u2019\u201d said Burchfield. \u201cI think, more importantly, that\u2019s like \u201898, \u201899. That was lifetimes ago already. I\u2019m only 36, but it\u2019s kind of funny to me that you can get so attached to some piece of nostalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n Whittemore concurred.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope someone just comes out with an official statement and puts it all to bed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Whether an actual theft, part of a grander social media plot or a fundraising tactic, it wouldn\u2019t be the first time the machine has made the news cycle. In 2022, Pepsi donated a year\u2019s worth of pop<\/a> and $10,000 to the station.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Looking at you, Disney.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t