They took the bridge and disappeared.
Thieves in the Bihar state of India near the Nepal border made off with a massive iron bridge that is said to have weighed approximately 500-tonnes (or 551.156 of our USA tons).
According to locals of Amiyawar village who witnessed the heist the theives arrived pretending to be government officials who were there to make repairs to the bridge. Over the course of a few days villagers noticed the officials taking off chunks of the bridge but assumed it was part of the repair process. That is until they woke up one day and noticed the bridge that was helped them get across the canal nearby was gone and so where the government officials.
This wasn’t exactly a sneaky operation either. The thieves used heavy machinery including gas cutters and earth movers in the broad daylight as part of their daring operation to dismantle and disappear with the bridge. Of course, the heavy machinery probably also helped them fool the locals into thinking they were professionals on assignment from the government.
One journalist from the area, Ajit Kumar, said he thinks they were probably scrap iron smugglers.
The bridge heist took place over several days between April 2nd and April 5th.
But the thieves appear to be getting caught and parts of the stolen bridge are already being recovered.
Thanks Y’all:
This story is based on original reporting by Amarnath Tewary of The Hindu. Read his original article here (Part 1). and Part 2 here.
Featured photo a compilation of photos from The Hindu who retains all rights and credits to the photos, used only here to provide visual commentary of the newsworthy story
