vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #160 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Suddenly thieves have taken to cannibalizing the past.

In Primorye and around Russia, stealing non-ferrous metal monuments and selling them for scrap has become a popular pastime for broad-shouldered hooligans.

In Vladivostok, thieves this week stole the metal plating from a World War II monument. In Bryansk, in western Russia, thieves stole 150 copper letters weighing 40 kilograms from a memorial called the Wall of Grief, dedicated those who died in World War II, Komsomolskay Pravda reported Feb. 5.

And in Nakhodka, public sculptures throughout town were cut down and carted away last fall. The metal apparently went to unscrupulous scrap metal dealers, who then sold them to counterparts in China and Korea.

Inspired, Vladivostok News decided to see if it could find a buyer for the Second River monument of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, hero of the Napoleonic Wars.

Although press have reported dozens of non-ferrous metal dealers in the krai, our intrepid translator, Anatoly Medetsky, only found two such businesses. One office had already been called by a reporter who suspected the business was involved in non-ferrous metal shenannigans. “We don’t deal in that anymore,” a man hastily said.

At another scrap metal business, Medetsky asked, “Would you accept a Kutuzov bust?”

“Wait a minute,” the secretary said, then yelled to her boss, “Do we take monuments?” The boss’ reply was muffled. She came back to the phone and said, “No, we don’t.”

Medetsky was crushed. He said, “You mean I stole this monument for nothing?”