There's Money in That There Wheelchair Lift!

Readers, this is the type of thing that is done in dirt-poor countries or countries under occupation (like Iraq).

That's where you are headed, America. Time to WAKE the FUCK UP!!!!

"Group steals wheelchair lift at hall in broad daylight" by Marc Larocque, Globe Correspondent | August 17, 2008

Striking in broad daylight while people were distracted by funeral receptions, a small crew of audacious thieves stole a wheelchair lift weighing hundreds of pounds from a Salem fraternal organization.

The lift was stolen from the Ancient Order of Hibernians hall on Boston Street, Salem Police Lieutenant Paul Lemelin said. Tom Tardiff, bar manager and chairman of the board for the group, said he believed the lift had been stolen to sell as scrap metal.

The clunky, 1,400-pound apparatus was mostly made of steel, he said. Tardiff said he has since visited scrap metal businesses in Everett and Chelsea, where he believes someone might try to sell it.

He said he received a call Friday from a club member telling him the lift was gone. The member said he had seen a group of men removing it Thursday, while almost 50 people were attending funeral receptions in two separate rooms at the hall.

"Someone asked me what I did with the lift," Tardiff said. "I said, 'Nothing. What's the matter?' They said, 'It's gone.' I thought it was a prank phone call." Tardiff said witnesses told him that the thieves were "were struggling with it. They were pulling it up. People watched them take off, and that's it."

"If anyone from the board of directors walked in, they would have immediately known something was wrong. It was just the timing of it being done in the middle of the day. Most of us were at our regular jobs. Nobody questioned it. They thought I was having the thing repaired. I can't believe someone would steal it," he said.

Tardiff said witnesses told him it took 40 minutes to load the lift, pulling it with a rope into a red truck. Some witnesses even said they exchanged pleasantries with the thieves.

Story is kind of funny when you think about it!

The lift was placed outside year-round and provided access to the hall where wedding and funeral receptions and other events are held. It raised wheelchair users 5 or 6 feet from the ground and cost the group $10,000 when purchased eight years ago.

Thefts of metals, especially copper, have been reported around the country in recent years. The Globe reported Friday that thieves have snatched up bronze sculptures at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.

NOT a good sign for the economy!

Bruce Savage, a spokesman for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a 1,600-member national nonprofit association for the industry, said the problem is growing as prices for metals rise. "People become more emboldened to steal these materials because there's a financial payoff for it," Savage said.

Kind of like the WAR LOOT, huh?

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