How do you make a 200 foot steel radio tower disappear?
At this point, maybe we should start worrying less about the rise of looting and thefts in major U.S. cities and start testing thieves for above-average engineering and problem-solving skills. Hey, maybe as part of a new diversity initiative we could even get them involved in the space program!
Regardless, this inquiry is what WJLX station general manager Brett Elmore finds himself asking in Alabama - after a 200-foot radio tower was stolen.
On Friday, a landscaping crew informed him that there "wasn't much left" of the tower when they went to go maintain it, according to the NY Post, who cited WBRC.
"I have been in the radio business, around it all my life and then in it professionally for 26 years, and I can say I have never heard of anything like this," Elmore said this weekend. "I can say I've seen it all now."
"When he arrived, he called me Friday and said, 'The tower is gone,'" he said about the landscaper. "I said, 'What do you mean the tower is gone? Are you sure you are at the right place?' He said, 'The tower is gone. There is wires everywhere, and it is gone.'"
WJLX Radio wrote on their Facebook page last week: "This is going to get out eventually, so I might as well make it public before it does. I have heard of thieves in this area stealing anything, but this one takes the cake."
It continues: "This morning, my bush hog crew went down to a tower site we have behind MarJac to do an early cleanup of the property before we did some more work down there. When he arrived, he called and notified me that not only was my building vandalized, but my TWO HUNDRED FOOT TOWER WAS GONE!"
"They stole every piece of equipment out of the building, cut the guy wires to the tower and SOMEHOW managed to down a 200' tower and take it from the property. Jasper Police is investigating and hopefully they will find who did it. It is a FEDERAL crime to tamper with a federally licensed facility," the post concluded.
Elmore concluded: "This really hurts a small operation like this, but like I said, I believe we will find out who did this. It is a federal crime and it absolutely will not be worth it to them."