Three drunk men in Dodgers gear came into the Echo Park Guisado's restaurant, ripped a beloved piece of Dodgers artwork off the wall, and made off with it, the man who runs the eatery told LA Weekly.

It happened Saturday about 3:50 p.m. after the blue team's win over Tampa Bay at Dodger Stadium. Armando De La Torre, Jr., the founder's son who runs the Guisado's at 1261 Sunset Boulevard, thinks the trio was at the Dodgers' shutout of Tampa Bay that day:

“I imagine they had gone to the game,” he told us. “My workers say they weren't disrespectful but were obviously loud and drunk.”

The 24- by 36-inch Sharpie-on-canvas artwork is of Dodger pitching great Orel Hershiser, whom De La Torre, 26, says was an idol in his own younger days as a teen pitcher. The story of the theft was first reported by The Eastsider LA.

Now De La Torre, who studied business at Loyola Marymount University, is a budding artist whose work can sell for thousands and has been hung at the Hammer Museum.

The piece has sentimental value, he said. It's not the first Dodgers artwork to go missing, either. A few weeks ago someone took a photograph of seats at Dodger Stadium hanging in a bathroom, De La Torre said. Someone had given it to the restaurant.

Credit: A suspect captured on Guisado's security video. Courtesy Guisado's.

Credit: A suspect captured on Guisado's security video. Courtesy Guisado's.

“What's sad,” he said, is that Saturday's trio seemed to “know the menu:” They were probably regulars.

They ordered at the counter and took off with the artwork, which hung in the dining room under a TV, after they were done eating, De La Torre said:

This was one of my favorite pieces. Hershiser was one of my heroes growing up. As a kid I always wanted to be him.

The restaurant is using its Twitter and Facebook accounts to spread the word about the missing artwork, hoping it will walk back in before police have to be contacted.

Three additional security cameras have been installed following the theft, De La Torre said.

The restaurant is the second Guisado's, an outpost of the original family eatery in Boyle Heights owned by De La Torre's family.

“I made the piece when we first opened this Echo Park location in January of 2013,” De La Torre said.

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