This seemed like the starting place for a letterboxing caper:

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Where's Sam Spade when you need him?

Thieves have stolen a copy of the bird statue at the heart of "The
Maltese Falcon" from the San Francisco restaurant used as a setting
for the 1941 film classic starring Humphrey Bogart as the
rough-and-tumble private detective.

The small, black figure was swiped over the weekend along with 20
vintage books, including copies of the 1930 Dashiell Hammett novel on
which the film is based.

John Konstin, whose restaurant John's Grill bills itself as the "Home
of the Maltese Falcon," said the thief broke into the case displaying
the statue over the weekend. Konstin is offering a $25,000 reward for
the replica's return.

While the statute is not the original movie prop, Konstin said he was
offering such a big reward because this copy of the Maltese Falcon was
signed by a cast member from the Bogart film.

"We want it back because of the historical and literary significance,"
Konstin said in a telephone interview. "It means a lot to us."

The novel is considered the most famous example of hard-boiled fiction
and was a major influence on writers like Raymond Chandler. The movie
helped define the film-noir tough-guy hero of the 1940s and 1950s.

In the story, Spade sets out to track the killer of his partner, Miles
Archer. In doing so, he meets up with a colorful cast of liars, cheats
and crooks ready to murder to get their hands on the statue, which
they believe is made of solid gold hidden by black paint but turns out
to be a fake.

Richard Layman, a Dashiell Hammett expert who has published six books
on the former detective-turned author, noted that Hammett refers to
John's Grill in the book and Spade goes there for lamb chops before
being sent on a wild goose chase after a girl.

He also said Hammett likely ate there in real life because he lived
near the restaurant and the Pinkerton detective office where he once
worked was also nearby.

"The irony is that it is a copy that people are so upset about," he
said in a telephone interview. "I'd go after the fat man and the
pretty girl," he added in reference to two of the story's villains.