Bridge Over Troubled Waters
By Wyatt Earp | October 15, 2011
Yeah, those waters? They’re a lot more troubled now.
State police have arrested two men accused of stealing a privately owned steel bridge from a secluded area in Lawrence County.
Police said that Benjamin Arthur Jones, 24, and Alexander William Jones, 25, used a torch to tear apart the Covert’s Crossing Bridge late last month or early this month. The bridge had been in North Beaver Township since at least the early 1900s and was worth an estimated $100,000.
Idiots. Why didn’t they just buy the bridge, like I did in Brooklyn?
Topics: The Job | 17 Comments »
October 15th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
I’m wondering if 100,000 dollars is the bridge’s economic value, or the scrap value.
If it’s the scrap value, we’re going to see a lot more of this
October 15th, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Sebastian – Might be the scrap value. Copper/steel thefts are way up in my division, especially from Septa depots.
October 15th, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Welsh Criminals???????????
October 15th, 2011 at 10:51 pm
Still wrapping my mind around..they stole a bridge!?!
October 15th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
Not surprising. Lots of secluded areas and very strange people out there (according to Sgt. Bones, who was familiar with a lot of them, lol). I like driving the winding roads out there, I’m just going to go a bit more slowly from now on.
October 15th, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Oh and scrap thefts were rising last time we were up there, one of Bones’ friends was complaining that their burn barrels keep getting snatched up. Sign of the times, innit.
October 16th, 2011 at 12:07 am
Howdy Wyatt – say, the story doesn’t give any dimensions of the bridge, nor how the hell the thieves “spirited it” away.
Even if it was a barely used bridge, and relatively small, the photo would indicate it was probably 50 yards or so long so…………………..how the hell did they get it or its remains OUT of there?!?
October 16th, 2011 at 3:46 am
This is my third visit to this site tonight as I cannot believe what I have been reading.
I cannot imagine how the bridge was stolen, it had to be piece by piece. How were the thieves caught? Did they take it to a dealer? How did they explain having a bridge for sale?
This is hilarious, though if the bridge was used it is not funny to the county/township/ whoever will be replacing it.
But what tall tales can be told from this! All the pictures running through my head.
October 16th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
According to this article the bridge was “50-foot (15-meter)-long by 20-foot (six-meter)-wide” so not as big as it looks in pictures and they sold “15 1/2 tons” of scrap and only got 5 grand.
More pictures of the bridge:
October 16th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Shakycam footage of the bridge.
October 16th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Hmm links did not seem to work for me so here is the plain text:
Pictures of bridge:
http://bridgehunter.com/pa/lawrence/377214037270120/
Article and video:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/brothers-steal-bridge-coverts-crossing-scrap-metal-pennsylvania
October 16th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Hey Wyatt, I got a bridge in Arizona to sell. Its second hand and used to be in England.
October 16th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
loki – that is what your links say, but I’m telling you that bridge was more than 50 feet long -by about another 50 feet or so.
Just look at the video as it pans from end to end.
October 16th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Yeah, loki. They got something like $0.16 per pound on 31,000 pounds of scrap metal. Came to a little more than $5K total.
With their skills with the cutting torch, you’d think they could get a job witht he gas companies working PA instead of freelancing in the stupid.
October 16th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
LDIV – Better than Scottish.
Sally Anne – And out there, you could probably do it without any of the slack-jawed yokels noticing.
Real – I can only go by the article. That’s western PA, so I don’t have any more knowledge of dimensions than you do.
AM – Doesn’t seem like these were master criminals. Probably left their driver’s licenses at the scene.
Loki – And it’s out in the middle of nowhere. Easy score. And 15.5 tons – to me – means,, yeah, they stole the bridge.
Robert B. – No takers!
Real – Even so, they took 15 1/2 tons of metal. That’s most of that bridge.
Joated – Big effort, little reward. Morons.
October 17th, 2011 at 11:01 am
Wyatt:
I guess those Pennsy-dwellers out WEST are a lot dumber than a bag of rocks…
Kinda makes some of us fromt eh EASTERN part look a whole lot better by comparison.
Like thyey SERIOUSLY thought they wouldn’t get CAUGHT…or that NO ONE would NOTICE the bridge was missing???
Truly a “WTF?” moment.
Great post and comments.
Roll safe.
October 17th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Long around 1984 or thereabouts, a couple of guys in Our Fair City stole a street. They came in with front end loaders and scraped up the belgian blocks for resale to a high-end developer.