Akron, Ohio police are trying to figure out how thieves made off with a 58-foot-long bridge.
The $40,000 pedestrian bridge — described as constructed like a large LEGO or Erector set that would be relatively easy to take apart — once spanned the Little Cuyahoga River in Middlebury Run Park, but had been moved moved to another location with the intention of being repurposed.
“The bridge is almost all polymer I’m told and really just connected by some bolts, so if you have any equipment, sockets or anything of that nature, it wouldn’t have been very difficult at all to start the process of disassembling that,” Lt. Mike Miller tells WJW.
Detectives say the theft of the bridge was actually done in phases, beginning on November 3, when the thieves cleared the brush around the span and then removed all of the deck boards from the structure.
Authorities believe the bridge has little recycling value, so their best guess is that the suspects are looking for someone in the market for a complete pedestrian bridge or the components of the bridge.
Anyone with information about the theft of the bridge is asked to call Akron police detectives at 330-375-2490.