Dumb crook destroys historic cannon to pay his drug dealer

[6string]

I just read a sickening story about an idiot who stole a Spanish-American War Era bronze cannon from a memorial display in Wichita, KS.
His plan was to somehow use the cannon to pay off a $20,000 debt to his drug dealer!

Apparently, he couldn’t fit it in his SUV, so he tried dragging it away with a chain.
The police tracked him down by following the gouges in the road, which led to a house owned by a friend. At that point, he (get ready for the sick part!) cut up the cannon with a Sawz-All into four or five parts. See attached pictures!
What was he thinking?
Sell it for scrap metal?
Weld it back together?

Honestly, this senseless destruction of an irreplaceable historic artifact for something so selfishly stupid really makes me mad!

There’s several news stories and videos related to this incident.

 

[lihpster]

Sometimes, although it is very rare, pieces of bronze cannons can be very valuable. case in point:

 

[Alpo]

Sell it for scrap metal?

Probably. Out at the Navy base in front of the dive School is a ship's propeller. Big bronze thing. 15 feet or more across. Probably weighs several tons.

What do you think that would be worth as scrap?

 

[14daMoney]

they should do the same to the thief . . . . .

 

[jaguargolf]

At the Brooklyn Navy Yard, many of the Ballards that ships' lines get connected to when mooring, are Civil War cannon that have been inverted and anchored in concrete.

 

[gwpercle]

Evidently the drugs he was taking were Not the kind that improve your IQ and thought process ...
He needs different drugs and Plan B ...
He needs to talk to his ... provider about changing his drugs .

As Bugs Bunny would say ... What a Maroon !
Gary

 

[Smoke]

When I was in the Army at Fort Carson on my days off I would go work as a day laborer downtown.

There used to be a factory right in the middle of town called Svedala (Now Metso), They made everything.

So I was working there one day they had a sweeping out of Warehouse. And I saw them moving a propeller for ship that they had just made I never realized how big those things were. I would say that it was at least 15 ft across.

The Hub of the propeller was still I would guess and the blades were all bronze. It was set up so that they could replace the blades I guess they could take the blades off the Hub and put a new one on

 

[03hemi]

Well, he is a drug addict, whatcha expect?

 

[LVSteve]

Meanwhile, in England, mindless vandalism is alive and well.

Sycamore Gap pair guilty of chopping down tree in Northumberland

Prosecutors say the pair thought it was "a laugh", but the "mindless thuggery" sparked global fury.

www.bbc.com

As for bronze propellers, former coworker had a story about some guys with brass ones turning up at a UK naval station with fake papers to remove two ships' props. AFAIK, they were never caught.

 

[Jim Watson]

Yes, there are places where old cannon barrels are sunk in the ground as bollards at a dock or hitching posts in town, but that was then and this is now.

Frex, I went to a cannon shoot with a group who had a reproduction Parrot and a real Blakely Rifle, noticed in a junkyard.

 

[dben002]

Just more proof that you can't fix stupid

 

[rwsmith]

People that are addicted to drugs have one thing one their mind.....drugs. That is all. And when your drug supply is threatened, desperation and panic set in and reason goes out the window.