Andreas Bieri, owner of The Mucky Duck on Captiva, with the old wooden sign that was recently returned anonymously in the mail after being stolen from the venue nearly five decades ago. THE MUCKY DUCK

The Mucky Duck on Captiva recently got a surprise in the mail: a sign stolen over 40 years ago.

In the last week in March, owner Andreas Bieri stopped by the Captiva Post Office, where there was a large flat package waiting for the Mucky Duck from “Amends Maker” in Durham, New Hampshire.

“We were all curious, so we said, ‘Let’s open it up and see,'” he said.

Bieri and the postmaster made their way next door to the Bank of the Islands to open the mystery package because the bank has more space. What they discovered inside was a surprise to all.

It was an old wooden sign that read: “ENGLISH STYLE PUB — CLOSED SUN.”

“We were all, ‘Wow, look at this. This is amazing,'” he said.

Included with the sign was a letter that explained the sender’s parents had lived on Sanibel in the 1970s and they would occasionally receive visits from their northern-residing teen and college-age children.

“‘The Duck’ was a favorite of theirs,” the sender shared.

The sender spoke to Hurricane Ian and the suffering Sanibel-Captiva has experienced because of it, noting that it was wonderful to see “the community spirit gather to raise the phoenix” despite it.

“In that spirit, the enclosed perhaps helps to restore a piece of the past to what is now your future,” the sender added.

The sender continued that according to the sign’s “origin story,” back in the late ’70s a restaurant colleague of a sibling, “on a no-doubt well-lubricated night,” thought it was a good idea to acquire a distinctive piece of property from an icon … “and the enclosed disappeared from your premises.”

The sender reported that the “property” changed hands over time to the point that they cannot even remember how or when it ended up with their stuff that moved from one residence to another.

“Fast forward some 5 decades, and with the horrid hurricane as context, I read an article about cultural appropriation, e.g., the British Museum not returning the Elgin Marbles. In that moment, I swore to see the enclosed was repatriated to its rightful owners,” the sender wrote.

“If there’s a statute of limitations on receiving stolen property, perhaps it has passed — but this return at least assuages my guilt for harboring what is yours,” the sender added. “Keep it away from future knuckleheads!”

Bieri described the saga as “obviously funny” and noted that “these things happen.”

“I thought it was cute. It really is,” he said. “I wish I could get in touch with them.”

As far as how The Mucky Duck is recovering post-storm, the restaurant has reopened with limited hours and a limited menu. There were quite a few things to fix, including gas and electric lines.

“It took us four months at least from the storm to get things back in order,” Bieri said. “The biggest thing was getting rid of all the sand beneath the building. In some places it was 2 to 3 feet high.”

There is still some work to do, like rebuilding their outside bar that was destroyed.

“We’re almost back to normal,” he said. “It’s not 100 percent, but at least we’re getting there.”

The Mucky Duck is at 11546 Andy Rosse Lane, Captiva.