What are some real-life thefts of unusually large physical objects?
February 24, 2022 7:21 PM Subscribe
Just curious as to how thieves manage to steal large things. What they stole and how they did it.
how about a 58-foot-long bridge?
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 7:32 PM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 7:32 PM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
MIT students stole a 3-ton cannon from Caltech.
posted by Melismata at 7:35 PM on February 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 7:35 PM on February 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
The story of the theft of the Stone of Scone (335 pounds) is interesting. It's told well in this podcast episode.
posted by likedoomsday at 7:37 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by likedoomsday at 7:37 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
How about 3000 tons of maple syrup over a two year period?
posted by true at 7:40 PM on February 24, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by true at 7:40 PM on February 24, 2022 [6 favorites]
Here is Steve Lehto's video about the theft of the 58 ft. bridge RobinofFrocksley mentions.
I haven’t watched it, and the thumb says a crane was used, but I think it’s worth linking for the multiple, multiple anecdotes in the comments of the theft of other large objects from a wide range of settings.
posted by jamjam at 7:44 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I haven’t watched it, and the thumb says a crane was used, but I think it’s worth linking for the multiple, multiple anecdotes in the comments of the theft of other large objects from a wide range of settings.
posted by jamjam at 7:44 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
The British. A continent. By saying that they owned it.
posted by Thella at 7:54 PM on February 24, 2022 [21 favorites]
posted by Thella at 7:54 PM on February 24, 2022 [21 favorites]
The Great Bell of Dhammazedi
"In 1608 the Portuguese adventurer Filipe de Brito e Nicote, known as Nga Zinka to the Burmese, plundered the Shwedagon Pagoda. His men took the 300-ton Great Bell of Dhammazedi, donated in 1485 by the Mon King Dhammazedi. ... De Brito and his men removed the Dhammazedi Bell from the Shwedagon Pagoda and rolled it down Singuttara Hill to a raft on the Pazundaung Creek. From here, the bell was hauled by elephants to the Bago River. The bell and raft were lashed to de Brito's flagship for the journey across the river to Syriam, to be melted down and made into cannon. The load proved too heavy, and at the confluence of the Bago and Yangon Rivers, off what is now known as Monkey Point, the raft broke up and the bell went to the bottom, taking de Brito's ship with it."
posted by cubeb at 8:17 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
"In 1608 the Portuguese adventurer Filipe de Brito e Nicote, known as Nga Zinka to the Burmese, plundered the Shwedagon Pagoda. His men took the 300-ton Great Bell of Dhammazedi, donated in 1485 by the Mon King Dhammazedi. ... De Brito and his men removed the Dhammazedi Bell from the Shwedagon Pagoda and rolled it down Singuttara Hill to a raft on the Pazundaung Creek. From here, the bell was hauled by elephants to the Bago River. The bell and raft were lashed to de Brito's flagship for the journey across the river to Syriam, to be melted down and made into cannon. The load proved too heavy, and at the confluence of the Bago and Yangon Rivers, off what is now known as Monkey Point, the raft broke up and the bell went to the bottom, taking de Brito's ship with it."
posted by cubeb at 8:17 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Maybe this isn't exactly what you mean, but a few years ago I was at my local Ikea, asking why large rugs (like 5 x 7 and larger) weren't in stock when they showed in stock, and the sales person on the floor said things like rugs get stolen all the time. I can imagine how people can wrap up small things in large things. I guess people are ... wrapping up larger rugs in larger rugs?
posted by bluedaisy at 8:30 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bluedaisy at 8:30 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Not a real life answer: fictional 1970s TV series Banacek often had inventive thefts of various large objects, with clever solutions.
posted by ovvl at 9:09 PM on February 24, 2022
posted by ovvl at 9:09 PM on February 24, 2022
Years ago a friend of mine stole a canoe from Sears. He taped a Sears receipt on it, picked it up and walked out. He even asked a store employee to hold the door for him.
posted by Marky at 10:00 PM on February 24, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by Marky at 10:00 PM on February 24, 2022 [11 favorites]
They didn't steal it, but Rice University students turned around a 2,500 pound statue with a contraption made of framing and seat belts
posted by Jacen at 3:21 AM on February 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Jacen at 3:21 AM on February 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
727 stolen from Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Angola.
Shawn Nelson stole a 54.6 short tons tank.
People have stolen (by slicing into smaller pieces) welded rail which can be several miles long.
Blackbeard stole the Queen Anne's Revenge a 103 foot long 200 BM ship.
All but the welded rail are of course easy mode for thefts seeing as the objects are designed to be mobile.
posted by Mitheral at 5:54 AM on February 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Shawn Nelson stole a 54.6 short tons tank.
People have stolen (by slicing into smaller pieces) welded rail which can be several miles long.
Blackbeard stole the Queen Anne's Revenge a 103 foot long 200 BM ship.
All but the welded rail are of course easy mode for thefts seeing as the objects are designed to be mobile.
posted by Mitheral at 5:54 AM on February 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
It may not be what you're looking for, but half of the stuff in western museums might count. The theft of three meteorites weighing many tens of tonnes that were used for centuries by Indigenous arctic people by Robert Peary is an example. The Parthenon Marbles are famous and involve real diplomatic trickery rather than just having guns and not giving a shit.
posted by eotvos at 9:37 AM on February 25, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by eotvos at 9:37 AM on February 25, 2022 [3 favorites]
In Joseph Wambaugh's nonfiction book The Onion Field, he discusses how one of the cops became a kleptomaniac who would regularly steal large things from hardware stores. He recounts asking an employee for help pushing a riding lawn mower out the front door. He says something along the lines of "if you look like you're supposed to be doing what you're doing, nobody will bother you."
posted by goatdog at 10:13 AM on February 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by goatdog at 10:13 AM on February 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Several large Henry Moore bronze statues have been stolen, and some of them never recovered.
posted by scruss at 1:31 PM on February 25, 2022
posted by scruss at 1:31 PM on February 25, 2022
In 2005, a group of thieves stole a two-ton Henry Moore Sculpture worth 3 million pounds. Police suspect it was melted down for scrap and sold for no more than 1500 pounds.
posted by kschang at 1:35 PM on February 25, 2022
posted by kschang at 1:35 PM on February 25, 2022
Ten largest things ever "stolen".
Among the list:
* an entire church in Russia
* a fully loaded oil tanker in Ghana
* a 3000 lb bell from a Buddhist temple in... Tacoma Washington (the perps were caught when they tried to sell it a year later)
* a 200 ton bridge in Russia
* an entire beach (full of sand) in Jamaica
posted by kschang at 1:41 PM on February 25, 2022
Among the list:
* an entire church in Russia
* a fully loaded oil tanker in Ghana
* a 3000 lb bell from a Buddhist temple in... Tacoma Washington (the perps were caught when they tried to sell it a year later)
* a 200 ton bridge in Russia
* an entire beach (full of sand) in Jamaica
posted by kschang at 1:41 PM on February 25, 2022
Largest object stolen by an individual person... SS Orient Trader, a 10639 ton ship by N William Kennedy in 1966, by cutting the mooring lines with an axe, in St. Lawrence Bay, Canada.
posted by kschang at 1:53 PM on February 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by kschang at 1:53 PM on February 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
A friend of mine grew up in the USSR. He told me once (and of course I cannot confirm it) that he and some of his fellow draftees into the Red Army once stole a tank by using some construction equipment to dig out a sizeable hole with a ramp, driving the tank in, and covering over the hole. I am not sure that this counts — it is more ‘disappearing’ than ‘stealing,’ but if he is to be believed, somewhere northeast of Omsk a T-64 still reposes a few metres down, waiting for the day when a baffled archaeologist is called in by a crew digging for a new water main.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:54 PM on March 1, 2022
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:54 PM on March 1, 2022
Shakespeare and his pals in London once stole an entire theatre.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:07 AM on March 2, 2022
posted by Paul Slade at 11:07 AM on March 2, 2022
The British. A continent. By saying that they owned it.You'll have to be more specific.
posted by Nerd of the North at 5:35 PM on March 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by zamboni at 7:28 PM on February 24, 2022 [6 favorites]