Can They Bait Him With Bowl of Melted Butter?

What a year it has been for Leroy the lobster. The 12-pound crustacean was flown in from Maine last September to help promote the annual Redondo Beach Lobster Festival and, before he could be plopped into hot water, he was “liberated” and plopped into very cold water--the Pacific Ocean.

Now, based on a recent sighting by a local diver, Leroy is alive but not so well, homesteading in a reef off Hermosa Beach, missing the large claw used for crushing food.

“Now, I realize lobsters don’t carry IDs, but how many huge Maine lobsters that have been liberated can you expect to find living adjacent to the scene of the crime?” festival promoter Jim Hall asked a reporter for the Easy Reader, a Hermosa Beach weekly.

Hall wants Leroy back, as a mascot, not dinner, and has offered divers a $100 reward and two passes to the festival as incentive. Hall said Leroy, if captured, will spend his days in the company of other lobsters at the Edison Center aquarium in Redondo Beach.