Continuing with my “anywhere except the United States theme”, we travel to the city of Bihar, India. Our journey so far has taken us to the England and Australia. What a month(ish) it’s been and we continue.
Some crimes are small. Think a stolen bike. Your neighbor’s Amazon package that somehow “walked away.”
And then there are crimes where someone looks at an entire bridge and thinks:
“Yeah… we can steal that.”
Welcome to Bihar, India, where thieves once pulled off what might be the most ambitious scrap-metal heist in recent memory: the disappearance of a 60-foot iron bridge. Not damaged. Not partially removed. Just gone.
The Bridge That Slowly Vanished
This bridge sat quietly in Amiyawar village in the Rohtas district of Bihar, spanning the Ara canal. It wasn’t exactly a tourist attraction. it had reportedly been out of regular use for years – but it was still very much a real bridge made of hundreds of tons of steel.
Then just one day, a group of men showed up with:
- Gas cutters
- Excavators
- Heavy equipment
- Government-looking uniforms
- The confidence of people who absolutely should not be trusted with power tools
They claimed to be officials from the irrigation department to dismantle the old structure. Local journalist Jitendra Singh stated “No-one suspected it was a heist”.
A villager named Gandhi Chaudhary added “People came with heavy machinery, gas cutters and worked for two days during the day time to dismantle the bridge.”
Three Days to Commit Grand Theft… Bridge?
The operation unfolded just like a regular construction project, but this one wasn’t properly scheduled. On the first day, workers and machines arrived. Metal extraction started. Day two, the bridge is slowly dismantled piece by piece. By the end of the third day, the entire 60-foot, roughly 500-ton steel bridge had been dismantled and hauled off for quite a bit of scrap.
No alarms. No questions. No one asking “Umm… are those guys stealing the bridge?”
Which is understandable. Especially since many villagers had been complaining about it being a health hazard.
If a guy shows up with a bulldozer, a clipboard, and the confidence of a man who has already stolen half the infrastructure budget… you tend to assume he’s official. I can confidently say I doubt I would ask many questions myself.
The Moment Someone Realized the Bridge Was Missing
Eventually, Pawan Kumar from the actual authorities noticed something unusual, like maybe, the absence of a bridge.
By the time police investigated, the structure had already been chopped up and sold off as scrap metal. Authorities later arrested 8 suspects connected to the theft and recovered some pieces from them.
But by then, the criminals had already pulled off what can only be described as the most patient robbery imaginable.
Bihar’s Ongoing Battle With “Impossible” Thefts
To be fair, this isn’t a problem that’s unique to India. Structures being dismantled and sold for scrap metal has happened in the Czech Republic, and Russia, and in the USA.
But this isn’t the only strange occurrence in the region. In a different district, Bihar saw a pond disappear. Maybe that’s another story for another day. It’d be pretty short though.
But stealing a 500-ton bridge still holds a special place in the criminal hall of fame.
Reactions
To be fair, some sources indicated the bridge hadn’t been used in like 30 years. But yea, those poor ducks.
The part that gets me is someone designed that bridge, got it approved, and then built it. And then a group of guys with cutting torches just uninstalled it like it was IKEA furniture.
I think I’m might be exactly the kind of neighbor they needed for this plan to work.
Imagine the morning traffic report: “Morning commuters should expect delays after the bridge was stolen overnight.” That’s a sentence I never thought I’d type.
Sources
1.) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61066473
2.) https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-police-hunt-gang-accused-stealing-bridge-2022-04-10/