The ongoing search for a missing Bucky Badger suit, stolen this past June from an unattended duffle bag, has UW police officers baffled.

“With all the publicity the missing suit has gotten, we’re worried that whoever stole it might have ditched it by now,” detective Bruce Carrol said.

Carrol has been investigating leads on the missing suit since its disappearance.

“We put out the initial press release so that the public could help us in the search for Bucky,” he said. “Since then we get calls every time Bucky is seen out in public.”

Bucky was most recently sighted Oct. 2 at approximately 10:30 p.m. walking on State Street.

He was spotted wearing his usual game day attire and was carrying two red balloons.

UW police officers responded to the call only to discover that it was just another one of the Buckys out for a birthday stroll. The balloons were from the Nitty Gritty.

Sources say that Bucky drank only the free soda and not the free tap beer that the Nitty Gritty gives to birthday patrons.

The suits spotted since Bucky’s disappearance were from the group of five that the UW spirit squad uses for different events. Some were homemade.

“For a little while [the spirit squad] had to work harder to make sure that Bucky got to all the different events,” UW Spirit Squad coordinator Josette Scheer said. “The university bought a new suit to replace the missing one in September, so since then things have been back to normal.”

Although the suit stolen was the oldest and most worn of the five, it will be missed.

However, all hope for finding the long-lost Bucky suit is not lost.

UW police are continuing to investigate the situation, following leads that, if released, would compromise Bucky’s safe return home to Camp Randall Stadium.

During the initial investigation, none of the six Bucky Spirit Squad members were suspected. The suit itself is worth $4,000.