Donkey’s Place’s walrus bone was stolen from the bar. Staff want it back.
The third-generation owner of Donkey's Place doesn't know where the walrus penis bone came from, but he said it's been with the bar since he was a kid.
Rob Lucas Jr. is not exactly sentimental about the 27-inch walrus penis bone that for decades has adorned the bar he inherited from his father.
But on Dec. 29, a patron was captured on video stealing the Donkey’s Place oddity, Lucas said, and it’s not something he takes lightly.
He wants his walrus penis bone back on his bar stat.
“I do have a credit card, but I can’t get the information from my credit card company unless I file a police report and that would mean going down to the police station and spending hours,” he said Wednesday. “We’d rather just get it back.”
The provenance of the bone is unknown to Lucas, third-generation owner, who grew up in the local cheesesteak spot and bar.
His grandfather, Leon “Donkey” Lucas, a heavyweight boxing contender in the 1928 Summer Olympics, opened the bar more than 80 years ago.
» READ MORE: In Camden for 75 years, Donkey's Place serves cheesesteaks - and so much more
Donkey’s got a major boost in 2015 when Anthony Bourdain featured it in an episode of his travel food show Parts Unknown. Bourdain said “the best cheesesteak in the area might well come from New Jersey,” referring to the Donkey’s Place staple served on a seeded Kaiser roll.
Donkey’s ambience has not changed much since Bourdain’s visit. It has the feel of a bar where everyone knows your name, cozy and packed to the gills with random decor, from beer memorabilia, boxing gloves, a megalodon tooth, and of course, the walrus penis bone, also known as a walrus baculum, for the citizen scientists.
Lucas grew up with the megalodon tooth and walrus bone but never learned what they actually were until he took the bar over from his father about a decade ago and endeavored to take stock of what he had on his hands.
Since then, the bone has been a great conversation piece — patrons guess what it is and pose for photos with it — and just another part of the local cheesesteak spot’s charm.
It’s why the waitress working a Dec. 29 shift didn’t think anything of the three men’s interest in the bone. Lucas said they spent a few hours at the bar while the waitress juggled patrons and the grill that’s within sight of where the patrons were sitting.
“They weren’t wasted or anything, but they had some sandwiches, bought some merchandise, and then walked out with the walrus bone,” he said.
But after paying their tab, Lucas said security footage shows one of the men wrapped the bone in a large pashmina-like scarf and walked out.
Little is known about the men. Lucas said they told the waitress they’d come to the area for HiJinx Fest, the two-day dubstep, electronic music festival, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center across the river. Lucas said the man who took the bone claimed he was a traveling tattoo artist, originally from Cleveland.
By Wednesday, Donkey’s Bar had posted a public plea on its TikTok account, asking for help in finding the bone, sharing screenshots of the trio walking out of the restaurant, bone in scarf.
@donkeysplacecamden We want our “bone” back! Please help!
♬ original sound - Donkeys Place Camden
The local response has been swift so far and one of downright indignation. Lucas said some tattoo friends have circulated the story and NJ Advance Media published an article about the search. Lucas imagines internet sleuths will do their own digging, though he does not want to get anyone in trouble.
“They could mail it back if they want,” he said of the trio. No questions asked.