From The Telegraph, April 10:
Indian police are tracking down a gang of “crafty scrap metal thieves” who posed as government officials to dismantle and steal a 60-foot bridge in a brazen heist.
Over several days, thieves used gas cutters and bulldozers to take apart a defunct 500-tonne iron crossing in Amiyawar, a village in the eastern state of Bihar.
Locals had long called for the decrepit bridge to be removed, and when confronted the thieves claimed they were doing so on behalf of the state’s irrigation department.
“People came with heavy machinery, gas cutters and worked for two days during the day time to dismantle the bridge,” said Gandhi Chaudhary, 29, a villager.
It was not until the gang had loaded the scrap metal into vehicles and made their getaway the incident emerged as “an extraordinary heist in broad daylight”, according to Indian media.
“Only later did the villagers realise the theft and informed the local department officials, who themselves were surprised,” Ajit Kumar, a local journalist, told The Hindu....
....MUCH MORE
People will do pretty much anything to get scrap (and not-yet-scrap), if the price is right:
