Photo: Akron Police Department
Nothing is too big for stealing.
By Sanika Nalgirkar — Written on Dec 16, 2021
Everyone protects their valuables to prevent them from being stolen. Now, it looks like it might be time to start protecting bridges as well.
The robbery of a 58-ft bridge from a park in Ohio has left investigators somewhat bewildered as few would have thought that a bridge could be stolen, let alone a bridge that is 58 feet long.
The 58-ft bridge was taken from Akron, Ohio.
Just last month, the bridge that was once located in Middlebury Run Park disappeared. Police who are currently investigating this case said they “have not heard of anything that large stolen” before.
The 58-ft bridge was a pedestrian bridge that had been installed over Cuyahoga River in Middlebury Park in the early 2000s. It was later moved, because of a wetlands restoration project, to a field within the park.
The city has suffered a loss of about $40,000 so the police are trying to locate the thieves behind this robbery. The police say they have found tracks of trucks on the field near where the bridge stood. However, they haven’t yet found any solid leads regarding it.
The Middlebury Park bridge was taken in fragments.
The bridge is 58 feet long, 10 feet wide & 6 feet high and was taken apart and stolen piece by piece.
Michael Miller, a Lieutenant at the Akron Police Department said, “I have not heard of anything that large — albeit it disassembled but actually stolen, I can’t think of anything comparable in my 22 years.”
He also mentioned how the bridge is connected with bolts and a little work and effort could dismantle the bridge easily.
“Essentially the bridge is made of some sort of polymer. It’s connected by some bolts. If you have any equipment, sockets, and things of that nature, it wouldn’t have been very difficult at all to begin the process of disassembling that. It’s described as a big Lego-like device.”
The thieves might think the bridge has some value.
The police are wondering why it was stolen because the material it is made from isn’t valuable.
Miller says, “Someone that might mistakenly think there is a particular scrapping value of that particular material. Maybe they are mistaken and now they’re stuck with, ‘well, what do we do with it? It went beyond impulsive.”
However, their best guess is that the bridge does have some recyclable value to it so they are looking for people or witnesses who may have any information about it.
Miller says, “Someone in the viewing area has access to some information that we need and this is the ‘whodunit’ where we really need the community’s help to point us in the right direction to find the people responsible for removing that bridge.”
Social media users can’t stop posting about it.
This particular event has caused a stir on social media where people have been posting memes and tweets about it.
Everyone is finding amusement in this situation and wondering how such a big object can be stolen.
One user wrote, “Only in Akron, can you steal a bridge and get away with it.” Another user wrote, “I get why you’d ask, but this bridge in my closet is a family heirloom.”
Jokes aside, here's hoping the bridge will be returned to its rightful owners!
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Sanika Nalgirkar, M.F.A. is a writer and an Editorial Intern at YourTango who writes on entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.