Local police reported that this is the largest theft they have ever encountered in their careers. This 17-meter-long bridge was constructed in 2000.
After an investigation, police discovered that on November 3, 2021, someone noticed the bridge deck had disappeared, leaving only the steel frame structure. By November 11, the entire structure was gone.
Upon investigation, police concluded that while the bridge was large, it was essentially built like a Lego assembly, with steel components connected and secured by bolts, making it relatively easy to disassemble a bridge. The thieves clearly recognized this and even planned a calculated heist.
Initially, the thieves cleared the bushes around the bridge, then gradually dismantled the deck and structure. Based on the tire tracks left at the scene, police managed to apprehend a 63-year-old man involved in the bridge theft; he had rented a crane to carry out the theft and transport it elsewhere.
However, this is not the only bridge theft occurring worldwide; similar incidents are happening all over the globe. In 2022, a group of workers was discovered dismantling a bridge in India. Yet, no local residents found this suspicious, believing it to be a normal demolition.
It was later revealed that these “workers” were actually thieves, and after dismantling the bridge, they sold the removed metal pieces to a recycling facility. Compared to the “vanishing overnight” cases mentioned earlier, this was more like a “broad daylight robbery.”
After dismantling the bridge, the thieves sold the removed metal pieces to a recycling facility.
In 2011, a 40-ton bridge in Pennsylvania, USA, was stolen, and metal was found cut from the bridge’s support pillars. In 2012, a thief in the Czech Republic stole a 10-ton steel pedestrian bridge and used a crane to dismantle parts of the bridge and railings. In an inaccessible area of Russia, a thief stole a long segment of a steel bridge, leaving only the bridge’s supports behind. In 2020, a theft of concrete roadway and bridge occurred in Danyang, Jiangsu, China, where thieves even hired people to transport the concrete roadway 18 times…
