'What do you mean 'Where's the anchor'?'"
It's not everyday a 6 ft. tall, 2000 pound anchor goes missing...and then it's not noticed for months.
But that's what they're asking in LaCrosse,WI at a Naval Reserve station.
Not only are they asking why and how it was stolen, but they wonder why no one noticed for months, even though the anchor is in a residential area, facing a well-traveled street.
Tom Sweeney said the subject came up last Wednesday at a meeting of the Naval Reservist Oversight Committee, which he chairs. The committee, which owns the anchor, is planning a memorial at the station.
The city took possession of the building earlier this year after the station closed. It last had drills in 2006.
A committee member asked where the gray-blue anchor went, said Sweeney, a city councilman whose district includes the station.
"And I said, 'What do you mean 'Where's the anchor'?'" he said.
Sweeney, who served four years active duty in the Navy and 21 years in the reserves, went to look. Sure enough, the anchor was gone. He inquired at the fire department, which is nearby and uses the station for training exercises. Firefighters knew nothing. Neither did neighbors. And he asked the city, to make sure workers hadn't removed it without telling anyone. No leads.
Coming up empty, Sweeney called police. He told them the anchor hadn't been seen since Dec. 31. He couldn't even remember the last time he saw it, but he figured it weighed less than the police said, most likely no more than 700 pounds.
Lt. Bob Berndt said police don't think the theft was a prank because the anchor was so big and sat on a steel plate at least a quarter-inch thick. They consider it stolen.
"This doesn't sound like any type of prank," Berndt said. "This would take some serious effort, I think, to move this thing."
Read the rest of the article at FirstCoastNews í here
Alright, you've got to wonder who would steal a 2000 pound anchor.
Where can you put it?
Someone obviously sold it.
Are people really getting that desperate?
I'd have loved to have been the detective on this case.. just for fun.
