Norwich – Jill Fritzsche has a good old fashioned who-done-it mystery on her hands, and she said there could be 50 to 100 suspects.

Fritzsche, owner of the Encore Justified antique shop at 102 Main St., arrived at her shop about three weeks ago and saw that the old sign that advertised a previous business hanging over the sidewalk had been stolen, probably, she figured, for the metal.

“Bummer,” Fritzsche said to herself. She was hoping to use the metal frame and antique brackets for a new sign for her shop. She was disappointed, but soon forgot about it and went to work.

One week ago, Miria Toth, Norwich Community Development Corp. office and marketing manager, saw that Encore Justified across the street had a beautiful new sign above the shop. Toth took a picture, posted it on NCDC’s Facebook page and complimented Fritzsche on the design.

Fritzsche hadn’t even seen the new sign yet. She still has no idea who returned the old metal frame with a stylish new painted sign attached: “encore,” is written in gold scripted letters at the top, followed by “justified” in neat typewriter-style block letters with “an upcycle boutique,” again in scripted letters beneath. To the right is an illustration of a man wearing a tuxedo and top hat, arm raised, pointing to the lettering in the sign. The entire sign has a blue background.

“I’m baffled,” Fritzsche said last week, “because it could be anyone of a hundred wonderful people in Norwich. It’s a total mystery. They did a beautiful job.”

It could also be someone repaying Fritzsche for her own generosity during this past cold and snowy winter.

Fritzsche watched many people walk through downtown Norwich over the winter, some not quite dressed for the weather. She noticed the small, barren cherry tree on the sidewalk outside the shop and decided to create a “giving tree.”

She decorated the tree with hats, gloves, wool socks, hand warmers, scarves and fleece blankets and put up a sign saying the items were free to anyone who needed them. Items disappeared quickly, and she and other downtown merchants and residents quickly replaced items.

In summer, when the garden at her Canterbury home starts producing, Fritzsche plans to load the tree with lettuce and beans and other vegetables.

“That tree is amazing,” Fritzsche said. “I guess it gave me a new sign.”

Fritzsche opened Encore Justified a year ago at 102 Main St. at the urging of Jason Vincent, vice president of NCDC. Vincent at first asked the 20-year Canterbury antiques shop owner if she would “prop” a couple of vacant Norwich storefronts to advertise her wares. She did.

“I think he was baiting me to get me to move down here,” she said.

He was. A couple months later, Vincent asked her to open a Norwich shop in building owner C.J. Rockett’s newly renovated building. It took her four months to convert the former office space into an antique and gift shop that carries everything from furniture to place settings and glassware to tiny toy airplanes, campaign buttons and house fixtures.

Fritzsche said she is thrilled with the move. Fritzsche received a lease rebate through the Norwich downtown revitalization program administered by NCDC and is considering expanding into the second storefront in the building – the storefront that’s technically at 110 Main St., the address the sign painter used, copying it from the old sign.

She loves being in downtown Norwich, where she said there’s plenty of free parking, including the city’s Main Street parking garage a short distance from the shop. And Fritzsche said her utility bills through city-owned Norwich Public Utilities are half what she was paying in Canterbury.

“The best kept secret about being a small business in Norwich is the municipal utility,” she said.

Unlike many other small businesses moving to an urban downtown setting, Fritzsche didn’t worry about attracting new traffic to the store. “I came with traffic,” she said of her longstanding antiques business and Internet advertising.

But any potential customers traversing downtown Norwich looking for the shop now will have a better landmark, thanks to someone Fritzsche might not even know.

“Maybe we’ll uncover the mystery,” she said. “But if we don’t, thank you, whoever you are. I’m extremely grateful.”

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday