'PIZZA MAN' FINDS A NEW HOME

The "Pizza Man" has a new home.

The last time we heard about the 15-foot-tall, fiberglass pizza man, was when he had tumbled from his perch atop Pop's Pizza in Cape Girardeau, falling on a customer's unoccupied car.

The car was damaged and no one was injured in the December, 1996 mishap, except the pizza man, who suffered a pair of broken arms.

A week ago, the pizza man disappeared from its storage area behind Pop's Pizza, located at 409 North Clark.

"He showed up a couple of days later in a family's front yard," said Cora Sample, owner of Pop's Pizza. "But, he disappeared from that yard."

Later, the giant pizza man, still minus arms, was spotted in another front yard.

"We found him in a front yard," said Ben Lowrance. "This is special trash pickup week and we thought he was being discarded."

Lowrance said he and a couple of friends stopped and asked if they could have the figure.

A woman said it suddenly appeared in her yard, said Lowrance. "She said she didn't know how it got there, but that we could have it if we would take it away."

Lowrance, a Cape Girardean, who attended high school in Cape, and is currently a student at Southeast Missouri State University, said he hoped to repair the arms.

"We really like it," he said. "We may dress it as Santa Claus this Christmas," he said.

"It's a historic reminder of the old Pizza Inn on Clark St.," said Lowrance. "We like it here. Students and people familiar with the large figure go back, honk their horns and wave."

Sample said she is pleased that the figure has found a home. "I'm glad it is being repaired," said Sample. "We stored it in back of the store here, and eventually would have trashed it."