ODESSA, Texas —
If you drive by the corner of 42nd and Bay Oaks in Odessa, you’ll see that the iconic beetle is no longer on the house.
But it didn't go very far. The owner simply moved to a new house and the slug bug now has a new home on the corner of 14th Street and Grandview.
Danny Jones, the owner of the beetle, says the idea to put it on the side of his home in the first place came to him shortly after he first bought it many years ago.
“Well, it was at the mall for sale, business was going out of business, and I bought it," Jones said. "I was going to put it in the house and then it dawned on me that it wouldn’t fit through the door, so I just decided to put it on the side.”
The slug bug got a new coat of paint and lights were put in the blinkers that you can see at night.
And of course, SpongeBob is once again behind the wheel.
"I didn't realize it was such an icon until I moved it here," Jones continued. It was all over Facebook, 'what happened? What happened to it?' I moved it here just this week, got it all painted and cleaned up and everything."
So, what does Jones have to say about the iconic status his beetle has within the community?
“I don’t want to say honored, but it was weird. Like on Facebook, this one lady said, ‘I grew up with that slug bug when I was 10, you know.’ I mean it’s been there 15-20 years and I just didn’t realize it would cause so much of a commotion with everybody,” Jones added.
Jones also says he’s glad that it makes people happy, and that the community is welcome to come look at it and take pictures.