Lisa Petterson of Merville has her ‘Where is My Dad?’ sign back, thanks to a couple of Good Samaritans in Port Alberni. Rob Pratt of Port Alberni, right, found the sign on Johnston Road and carried it home to keep it safe until Petterson could retrieve it and put it back up. Her father, Don Petterson, went missing from Port Alberni on June 9, 1996. (PHOTO COURTESY LISA PETTERSON)

Lisa Petterson of Merville has her ‘Where is My Dad?’ sign back, thanks to a couple of Good Samaritans in Port Alberni. Rob Pratt of Port Alberni, right, found the sign on Johnston Road and carried it home to keep it safe until Petterson could retrieve it and put it back up. Her father, Don Petterson, went missing from Port Alberni on June 9, 1996. (PHOTO COURTESY LISA PETTERSON)

Missing ‘Where is my Dad?’ sign returned in Port Alberni

Good Samaritan finds Lisa Petterson's stolen sign, returns it to Merville woman

  • Jul. 15, 2020 12:00 a.m.

Lisa Petterson of Merville has her ‘Where is My Dad?’ sign back, thanks to a couple of Good Samaritans in Port Alberni.

Once word got out on social media that someone had taken down the sign Petterson had erected at Gyro Williamson Park, people started looking for it.

Rob Pratt found the sign in a dip on the grass on Johnston Road, a few blocks west of the park where it had been removed. He walked it home and contacted Petterson to let her know he found it.

READ: ‘Where’s my Dad?’ Vancouver Island woman searches for father 24 years after disappearance

Petterson came to Port Alberni on Father’s Day to put up the sign asking for information on the disappearance of her father 24 years earlier in Port Alberni. Don Petterson had come to the city from Surrey to look for property. After spending the night of June 8, 1996 in cells at the Port Alberni RCMP station following a night of drinking, Don left the police station, withdrew some money from a bank on Johnston Road and was never seen again.

READ: Sign asking for information on Vancouver Island man missing from Port Alberni goes missing

Lisa, who is now the same age her father was when he disappeared, decided to have a sign made and put up at Williamson Park where her father had been picked up by RCMP 24 years earlier. She is hoping it jogs someone’s memory, or that someone who knows what happened might be ready to talk about it now.

The sign disappeared six days after she put it up, although the lumber was left behind. The sign had not been removed from the City of Port Alberni.

Two sign-making companies in the Comox Valley came to Petterson’s aid when it was revealed that her sign went missing, and made replacements. Then she heard from Pratt and returned to Port Alberni to retrieve her original sign.

The sign is back up at Gyro Williamson Park.


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