© Minyanville
As commodity prices have soared, thefts of said commodities have, too.
Church roofs have gone missing as the price of lead hit all-time highs, used fryer grease has disappeared from behind fast food restaurants and resold for biofuel, and thieves have robbed beauty salons, making off with -- not cash -- but tens, sometimes hundreds, of thousands of dollars worth of hair extensions.
Now, an entire bridge has been stolen for scrap -- only the folks who stole it didn't time the market particularly well.
The 50-foot bridge, made of corrugated steel and formerly located in New Castle, Pennsylvania, was valued at "about $100,000," according to the Associated Press.
New Castle Development Spokesman Gary Bruce tells local NBC affiliate WFMJ, "I couldn't understand how a bridge could be gone. I thought that with the rain it got washed away."
It didn't. WFMJ's Sally Phillips reports that "it was stolen, cut right off of its foundation. You can even see the marks left where thieves used a blowtorch to detach the grating and steel beams."
Police are now "looking in scrap yards to see if they can find anything brought there yet because it would've gone in recently," says Bruce.
However, the criminal masterminds who stole the bridge may have some trouble unloading their haul.
The World Steel Association's annual meetings begin today in Paris, and the outlook is grim.
Bruno Bolfo, chairman of Swiss steel trading company Duferco, says prices are "at a disastrous level and are either at or only just above companies' break-even position."
In the future, savvy "investors" may be better served with the tried-and-true "shoving-meat-down-their-pants" technique.
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