Giant, inflatable advertising figures of SpongeBob SquarePants have become a coveted item among United States thieves and cost a worker her job in a dispute with a Burger King in Florida.
The balloon figures, 3m tall, promote the SpongeBob SquarePants film and can be seen atop Burger King restaurants, wherever they have not been pinched.
Hundreds have been reported stolen around the US and dozens have found their way on to eBay, where sellers offer them at auction with assurances that they have been obtained legally.
One of those sellers was Viney Richards, who worked at a Burger King and said that a manager had given a SpongeBob to her.
Because she could not keep it at home, she decided to sell it, according to the Tampa Tribune.
Richards told the newspaper that she had received a call from work, demanding that she return the figure.
When she did not wish to return SpongeBob, the franchise owners fired her, saying she had refused to return their property.
A company that posts its clients’ items on eBay said that it had called the Burger King to verify that the figure had not been stolen and that a manager had assured the company that it had not been.
Richards sold the figure for $1 025 dollars on eBay, where the going price has been between $300 and $500. — Sapa-AFP