Where are Mr. Trash Wheel’s eyes? That’s the question floating around Baltimore this week.

Mr. Trash Wheel, the city’s beloved, googly-eyed trash-eating machine, has lost his signature peepers, leaving him blind just weeks before Earth Day. But before you start a citywide search party, take a deep breath — there’s no foul play.

Sitting near Pier 6 where the Jones Falls meets the Inner Harbor, Mr. Trash Wheel is a solar-powered trash interceptor that’s gobbled up millions of pounds of garbage since 2014. His oversized googly eyes have long watched over the harbor and delighted locals as he does his dirty work

And now? Those eyes have mysteriously vanished.

“justice is bliNd and so, it sEems, am i. pheW! humans, be on the lookout for my eyeS!” reads an Instagram post Tuesday on Mr. Trash Wheel’s account.

Mr. Trash Wheel, which has eaten more than 4.3 million pounds of litter and debris since he was launched, is a beloved local celebrity. So when his googly eyes were nowhere to be seen, people turned to social media for answers.

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“My guess is they took them down due to recent high winds. Sometimes they blow off ... and then he eats them,” one Reddit user wrote.

“The circle of trash,” another responded.

Others on social media noticed the caption on the Instagram post seemed to contain a secret message. If you look at just the capitalized letters, it spells: NEWS.

Previous storms have indeed blown Mr. Trash Wheel’s eyes off, said Adam Lindquist, vice president of the Waterfront Partnership, which oversees the city’s four trash wheels. But it doesn’t seem that was the case this time.

“This is the first time that they’ve ever gone missing,” Lindquist said.

Lindquist didn’t seem too concerned and said there might be sightings of the missing eyes around the city, suggesting the mystery is more fun than scandal.

“We expect to see our googly eyes popping up at maybe some notable places around town,” he said.

Are there any suspects? He had mentioned they had noticed an increase in ducks and geese around Mr. Trash Wheel lately.

“At this point, we don’t suspect any fowl play,” Lindquist said jokingly.

Well, who would have access to Mr. Trash Wheel?

“We take care of the trash wheel and take care of the eyes,” Lindquist said. “There’s nobody else who would have access to Mr. Trash Wheel.”

Mr. Trash Wheel was launched in May 2014, becoming a Baltimore celebrity and symbol to the city’s environmental mission. As of 2024, the trash wheel family had removed 5.2 million pounds of trash and debris from the water, according to The Waterfront Partnership.

The rest of the Trash Wheel family — Professor Trash Wheel, Captain Trash Wheel and Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West — all currently still have their eyes.

But Lindquist said it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on all of the Trash Wheel family just to make sure that their googly eyes don’t go missing as well.

So, keep an eye out, Baltimore. Lindquist is hoping it will all be resolved in time for Earth Day on April 22.