They were all shook up

We used to have a bust of Elvis at work but the cranky old boss made us get rid of it. We considered the King to be a sort of talisman, bringing good luck to us in our work and peace to our families. 

Removing him from our midst was a bad move for the boss. On his way home that night, he was swept away by a vortex of doom and never was heard from again.

All right, it didn't happen, but that wasn't for lack of earnest hopes.

If you are at all familiar with the King, you know that he was basically a benign fellow, charitable, patriotic, good to his family and friends, all the virtues we admire. I keep mementoes of him around the house to keep the good spirits in place.

And out in West Peoria, Illinois, a bar called Jimmy's had a similar bust in the house, and some ne'er-do-well ripped it off, but it came back to where it once belonged. Both the theft and the return were wrapped in mysterious circumstances.

It was a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago when the employees at Jimmy’s came in to empty the grease traps and tap a new keg for the football crowd. When they looked up, the bust was gone. By Wednesday, the bar owner, Jimmy Spears, had put an appeal on Facebook hoping the Kingnappers would Return To Sender the stolen artifact "No Questions Asked."

And the next night, Thursday, the get-a-jump-on-the-weekend crowd was jumping for joy, because they found His Majesty on the porch right outside Jimmy's.

“He’s back!” pub owner Spears told the Peoria Journal Star on Friday. Spears chalked up the puzzling return to the publicity surrounding the theft.

For now, Spears is tickled to have the prize back, but he and other "Suspicious Minds" are working on ways to prevent another abduction. You can't expect the thief to walk in, admitting that "I Was The One."

The "Good Luck Charm" only cost 15 bucks at a yard sale years ago. It's not the price of things sometimes; it's what things come to mean.