GREENE — Oh, moo.

Someone stole Charlie the steer.

After standing outside Town & Country Foods for 27 years, Charlie, the shop’s life-sized, fiberglass mascot, is missing.

The store ran a “wanted” ad in Monday’s newspaper asking “Where’s the beef?” and offering a no-questions-asked reward.

Charlie had stood by the front door of the retail shop on Daggett Hill Road for decades before being moved several weeks ago to the front lawn for a new paint job, Town & Country Foods office manager Danielle Petersdorf said.

“We were going to repaint it and do a little meat display on it, the cuts of meat,” she said. “It got stolen off the front lawn.”

On July 16, employees on the night crew heard noises outside but didn’t see anything. In the morning, the steer was gone.

It would likely have taken two people to lift the life-sized Charlie, Petersdorf said.

The steer is brown and white with “Butcher Shop” written in cursive on both of its sides.

“People just loved it,” she said. “All the kids, when they would come in, would sit on the top of the cow. Some people took their picture with it.”

The reward for Charlie’s return is a $500 gift certificate to Town & Country Foods.

“It was probably some teenagers that stole it and used it, we’re thinking, for target practice,” Petersdorf said. “I hope not, but we don’t know. I would hope that he would just be safely returned.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com