The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that somebody cut through the chain-link fence in its parking lot and drove away with the company’s van. It happened Monday night or Tuesday morning. Writes editor Tim Redmond:

Kinda crazy — it’s ten years old, it’s all beat up — and it has the Guardian logo all over it and a Best of the Bay mural on the side. Hard to hide.

It’s value is probably more sentimental than economic at this point, but we miss it — after all, we used the van as the cover of our Best of the Bay issue back in 1999, when it was brand new. We commissioned the van-mural, designed by Tim Racer at Racer-Reynolds Illustration and painted by Rich Ayer at Signmakers, and we’d hate to see the artwork chopped up or painted over.

So if you see it, call SFPD burglary at 553-1261. Or call us.

SFist.com jumped to the conclusion that the SF Weekly stole the van. The SF Weekly denies it and blames the obvious suspect, PG&E.