Catching them will be a tall order.
Thieves are not necessarily lazy, per se. I watched video of two guys trying to rob from a safe in our office. They worked pretty hard for about 7 hours, but they failed to open it.
From the article:
Elmore said last week, a landscaping crew sent down to the area on around 52 acres of land, where the tower stretches towards the sky, discovered that the long rural communications spire taller than the length of a football field had just vanished — “stolen without a trace,” the station said.
They must have some short football fields in Alabama.
(Normal length is 100 yards ((300 ft.)) plus the end zones)
This was baffling to me too, but I read somewhere that the AM station had gone silent several months ago, so there would have been no power going into the tower. People steal the buried copper radials from AM towers occasionally.
However, toppling a tower in the middle of the night would still have been an extremely dangerous undertaking, much less cutting it up and carrying it off, so this whole thing sounds to me like an inside job. You can see plenty of videos on YouTube of AM towers being toppled by professionals who use strategically placed dynamite to make sure they fall in the right direction. One of the more interesting ones involves the four towers of the former WMAL in Washington DC.
Here’s a map showing it:
ISTM, it’s not in a place where people are really going to notice anything going on. It looks like it’s in an industrial area and I’ll bet if the people showed up in the middle of the day with trucks and equipment, no one would think twice about it coming down. In fact, if it’s been off the air for a while, they might just assume it’s being replaced. That whole ‘walk in like you own the place’ attitude does tend to work really well.
That’s not to say they didn’t do it at night, just that they could probably do it in the middle of the day without anyone thinking they were stealing it.
As long as no one from the radio station was aware it was happening, I’m guessing the people at the nearby mattress factory or the Jasper Street Dept thought much of it if they even noticed it happening.
I’m not saying it would be an easy job, but really all that is required is a couple guys with angle grinders and the best part of a day to make that antenna transportable. The stay lines would probably make the toppling a lot less dramatic than we might imagine.
If you go to Google Maps and streetview you can get a few good views of the tower. Certainly something that could be taken down and away by some motivated people, but not something I would like to try.
Can’t be an inside job. The tower’s outdoors. :groan:
If they brought a clipboard they’d have been golden. Nobody questions a dude(ette) with a clipboard.
A hat with a business logo is helpful too.
So, the days of printing your own business cards are gone?
Okay I snorted IRL.
And don’t forget the reflector vest.
Exactly, f you have a high-vis vest and a clipboard and an ID on a lanyard nobody will question your being around.
Don’t forget your hardhat.
These folks are going to be so weighted down with their accessories that they won’t be able to carry the thing they’re stealing.
That’s why a hand truck is part of the accessories. Duh. 
When you’re stealing a 200 foot tall metal structure, the weight of your props and hand tools is immaterial to successfully hauling away your swag.
Naw, naw. A white hardhat with a logo.
Ninja’d by Yllaria.
Or, in the right time and place, a Prussian officer’s uniform works like a charm