UW-Madison asking for its iconic chairs back

In Madison, they are a symbol of summer. The colorful sunburst style Memorial Union Terrace chairs.

“Everybody equates that with music and fun and food and beautiful summer evenings.” said Memorial Union spokesman Marc Kennedy.

Because of that, people try to take that little bit of summer with them. Union officials say a record number of chairs disappeared this summer, about 250 are gone.

“We just want them to come home, we just want all the chairs to be back on the terrace where they belong.” Kennedy said.

So what does that have to do with the Milwaukee area? Well university police say they think UW students have most of the missing chairs. So they are asking parents to check in with their students who live in Madison.

“Especially if the parents know that they have these chairs and they have them illegally, they need to encourage their student to come to the police department or go to the union and take them back.” said UW-Madison Police spokesman Marc Lovicott

Officials say students can avoid a five hundred dollar ticket for having the stolen chairs if they bring them back before police catch them.

“We've all been there at a certain age where it sounds like fun, and the old adage that something that happens after 2 o'clock in the morning is usually not a good idea. Well that's usually when a lot of the chairs had disappeared.” Kennedy said.

The Union is specifically looking for green, orange, or yellow chairs, and say if a student has one of those, they have it illegally. Also, if somehow you have one in Milwaukee from your days in Madison, the Union says they'll even send someone out to come pick it up.