THIEF STEALS RODS OFF WASHINGTON MONUMENT (Mar, 1935)
Filed under: Just Weird — @ 2:01 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1935
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Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1935
| Buy on Ebay
THIEF STEALS RODS OFF WASHINGTON MONUMENT
One of the strangest thefts on record was revealed recently with the reported disappearance of 107 miniature lightning rods that were being substituted for older ones atop the Washington Monument. Apparently an audacious thief had taken advantage of the huge scaffold used in renovating the monument to commit one of the loftiest of burglaries. Plated with gold and tipped with platinum to avoid corrosion, the rods were valued at eight dollars apiece.
Metal theft continues to be a huge problem, although these days the usual targets are copper wire and refrigeration coils.
According to one inflation calculator I found, $8 in 1935 would be the equivalent of $122.69 today, so the thief took the 2008 equivalent of about $13,000.
Comment by Orv — February 22, 2008 @ 7:21 pm
also, orv, platinum was not realized to be a precious metal at that time, and even the price of gold was very low.
Comment by mickey — December 5, 2008 @ 11:55 am