Thieves have stolen almost a dozen bronze mild poles within the metropolis of Pasadena in the previous couple of weeks, with a number of the iconic fixtures courting again greater than a century.
The sunshine poles line Orange Grove Boulevard and solid a heat glow on the road each 30 ft. Yearly, the road performs host to Rose Parade floats as they line as much as flip onto Colorado Boulevard.
However a suspect or suspects with different designs for the sunshine poles have managed to topple them and drive off with the fixtures, based on Pasadena spokesperson Lisa Derderian.
In a latest failed try, a thief strapped a big chain round one of many poles and tried to drag it out with a truck. However a neighborhood resident noticed what was taking place and known as police. The thief left behind their chain, based on authorities. There have been no arrests made, and there’s no description of a suspect car.
The primary reported incident occurred between March 29 and April 1, the Pasadena Police Division stated in a information launch. Different thefts occurred on April 4 or 5 and April 8 between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m. Derderian stated.
The town of Pasadena has marked space the place a bronze avenue lamp put up was stolen alongside Orange Grove Blvd. in Pasadena.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Occasions)
First erected within the Nineteen Twenties, the poles had been focused in an analogous wave of thefts greater than a decade in the past, based on metropolis officers. Thieves have additionally focused copper wire and bronze plaques within the metropolis, as in Los Angeles and different locales. However the mild poles are probably the most obvious thefts, abandoning a knot {of electrical} wiring and darkish divots within the concrete the place the poles had stood.
“There isn’t any simple approach to vandal-proof these,” Derderian stated. “Since these poles are historic, they’re troublesome to search out, so we’ve been changing them with replicas.”
A substitute pole prices about $1,600, she stated, and a stolen one instructions an estimated $400 on the scrap steel market.
Anybody who has details about the thefts or has seen something suspicious is inspired to name the Pasadena Police Division at (626) 744-6492 or (626) 744-4501.
The sunshine poles be part of a rising checklist of bronze objects stolen in latest months, in all probability for his or her scrap worth.
In February, Los Angeles Port Police arrested three folks in connection to a string of bronze plaque thefts in Lengthy Seashore and the encompassing space. A bronze plaque stolen from Terminal Island that honors members of the native Japanese American fishing neighborhood who had been imprisoned throughout World Warfare II continues to be lacking. Thieves have additionally stolen greater than 100 headstone plaques from a cemetery in Carson.
In January, thieves additionally made off with a plaque commemorating the historical past of Bruce’s Seashore in Manhattan Seashore. The plaque was pried off a big plinth a few yr after it was put in, based on police. The plaque acknowledged the racist historical past of Manhattan Seashore and the way the metropolis drove out the Black household that owned the land.
