When the gavel came down on White’s pig at $3,000, the crowd at the Barnegat Light Volunteer Fire Co. auxiliary’s 42nd annual auction knew they had witnessed something special. The fiberglass pig that had stood sentinel outside the iconic White’s Market for decades wasn’t just another auction item; it was a piece of Barnegat Light history, and everyone wanted to take it home.

With White’s Market closing this year after Mike White ran it for decades, the pig became the evening’s most sentimental…