Historic metal plundered

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but the looting in our area seems to be getting worse all the time. Whether the target is scrap or antiques, its running rampant. Most of the time, the cost is economic, but sometimes the cost is much higher. Unfortunately, this is a pretty egregious case of the latter.

According to the Post Dispatch, burglars have stolen about 1,500 pounds of historic brass hardware from Larry Giles, who leads the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation. The hardware had been salvaged from historic locations throughout the area, which were doomed for the wrecking ball or undergoing major renovations. This stuff is a piece of our local historic.

The worst of it is that since brass materials seem to have been the target in this Soulard warehouse, the perpetrators are probably trying to sell everything for scrap. Antiques stolen for resale are bad enough, but when something like this is destroyed, its a travesty.

On the positive side, one of the suspects has reportedly been caught. Since he probably didn’t haul of 1,500 pounds of metal himself, I am sure there are others out there. If you see anyone trying to sell off a truckload of antique brass hardware, you’d be doing Mr. Giles and all of St. Louis a favor by calling the authorities.

For more information, refer to the full Post Dispatch article.