Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #536

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Akron Police Investigating After 58- foot Bridge Goes Missing
by: Jack Shea
AKRON, Ohio (WJW) — Akron police have investigated the theft of all kinds of valu- ables over the years, but for the first time in anyone’s memory, detectives are trying to find out who stole a bridge.
At one time, the pedestrian bridge was along the Little Cuyahoga River in Middlebury Run Park, which sits in the shadow of Goodyear World Headquarters on Akron’s East End.
However, the com- plete 58-foot long span was removed from the park as part of a wetlands restora- tion project and moved to a field along Seiberling Street.
The city of Akron had hoped to repurpose the $40,000 bridge, but on Nov. 11, police were notified that the bridge had been stolen.
There are tracks in the field, that show where the thieves drove their truck or trucks. Investigators say they are not sure what the crooks plan to do with the bridge.
“It could be used for a variety of different things to include as simple as landscaping or they could use it
for some other engi- neering project, some other large scale proj- ect,” said. Lt. Mike Miller.
Investigators describe the bridge as a large Lego or erector set, that would be relative- ly easy to take apart.
“The bridge is almost all polymer I’m told
and really just con- nected by some bolts, so if you have any equipment, sockets or anything of that nature, it wouldn’t have been very diffi- cult at all to start the process of disassem- bling that,” Lt. Miller said.
Detectives say the theft of the bridge
was actually done in phases, beginning on Nov. 3, when the thieves cleared the brush around the span and then removed all of the deck boards from the structure.
Authorities have con- cluded 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 compo- nents of the bridge.
“Someone in the viewing area has access to some infor- mation that we need and this is the ‘who- dunit’ where we really need the community’s help to point us in the right direction to find the people responsi- ble for removing that bridge,” Lt. Miller said.
Anyone with informa- tion about the theft of the bridge is asked to call Akron police detectives at 330- 375-2490
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