Stolen boards mystery solved

The desperadoes who ‘kidnapped’ the Uncle Chester advertising boards outside a town centre restaurant were captured.

But the £50 bounty offered by Chester’s boss Bill Dickie, in July 1988, was not being paid because the ‘guilty’ bandits were... workmen from Strathclyde Region’s roads department.

And the offenders were turned in by their own red-faced colleagues who spotted the story in the Paisley Daily Express.

The boards – valued at £400 all together – were lifted on to a van by region workmen when they were placed on the pavements at 3 Millar Street and Glasgow Road.

Said Mr Dickie:“I thought the simplest thing would have been to come into the restaurant and tell me.

“I called up their depot after someone telephoned here and they are going to send them down.

“But they are certainly not getting the reward!”

Director of roads in Paisley, Guido Marchetti, said:“Normally, we would serve notice on the business to take them away.

“This seems a bit unusual.”

However, principal traffic engineer Mr Jack Taylor was unrepentant.

He said:“We have got the desired effect.

“He now knows you cannot do that sort of thing willy-nilly.

“Our motto is‘think safety, think pedestrian’.”