Manny, Moe and Jack, AKA the Pep Boys, apparently slipped out of Bremerton in the dead of the Oct. 27 night. The company is not commenting on the abrupt shuttering of its East Bremerton outlet, and details surrounding the closure are sketchy.

The windows of the retail-display area of the store, located across from Fred Meyer on Highway 303, are papered over and a sign that invites shoppers to visit Pep Boy stores in Everett or Puyallup reads, “This Store is Closed.”

The local store is reportedly one of 39 Pep Boys being shut down across the nation. Repeated calls to the company’s 800 number to confirm that fact were either answered by recorded messages or referred to a company spokesman who hasn’t returned any of the numerous calls.

According to an Associated Press report all three Pep Boys stores in Oregon also closed the same day. It was reported in The Sun that employees of the local store had no advance notice of the closure.

The East Bremerton Pep Boys store opened in February 1998 and was the company’s first Pacific Northwest store. Five more opened in Oregon and Washington last year.