Dog grooming shop missing beloved statue

Signs attached to light poles and windows along Nassau Boulevard in Garden City want to know what's happened to Winston.

The 270-pound, 6-foot-tall wooden dog statue disappeared late last month from outside Woofer Wash, a dog grooming shop.

Owner Mindy Fras had painted a purple coat and hat, bright yellow vest and turquoise pants on the dog, putting him outside the shop when it was open.

Nassau police said they are investigating the disappearance and said they have surveillance videos of the night that the statue went missing.

The loss of the dog statue has affected her business, Fras said.

"My customers know when Winston's outside that we're open, but since Winston's gone, people have been assuming we've been closed," she said, adding that her shop is harder for new customers to find now that the big cigar-smoking statue is gone.

Fras said she bought the statue on a family trip to the Hamptons 2 1/2 years ago.

"My husband thought I was nuts," she said.

The statue quickly became a tourist attraction and before its disappearance, people would come by and take pictures with it, Fras said.