A press briefing was held Monday morning at the University of North Florida to spread the word about a play investigation of UNF’s missing mascot, Ozzie.
The conference, held on campus at Alumni Hall, was to announce the creation of a fake “Missing Bird Bureau” to help locate Ozzie. At the conference, UNF Chief of Police Frank Mackesy spoke about the department’s efforts to find Ozzie.
“We’re trying everything that we can to capture Ozzie,” Mackesy said. “But we are expending every resource in an effort to find Ozzie. So, with that being said, we’re going to have a special deputy that’s going to be in charge of helping us find Ozzie.”
Monday’s press briefing is a part of UNF’s marketing campaign ahead of next week’s Homecoming festivities.
The “special deputy” put in charge of the investigation is Linda Mobley. She took an oath to “uphold the Constitution of the state of Florida and the United States of America.” Mobley is the executive secretary for UNF Marketing and Communications.
Andrea Jones, vice president of Marketing and Communications, spoke about the importance of Ozzie’s attendance at the Homecoming game.
“We, in moving homecoming for the fall, we really wanted to make sure that Ozzie was front and center, in trying to drive attendance among our faculty and staff and students,” said Jones
Two days ago, the university posted on Instagram that Ozzie has been missing since Oct. 31. A page on UNF’s website has also been created for the mascot. The website asks, “If you have any information about Ozzie, please attend the UNF Homecoming game on Sat. Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. in the UNF Arena.”
The page also gives information about Ozzie’s demographics as well as some “Ozzie the Osprey Sightings.”
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