An Alabama radio station realized that someone had cut down and stolen its tower when a landscaping crew showed up to maintain the site.
© ANDREW DOLPH/TIMES-REPORTER / USA TODAY NETWORK
(Jasper, AL) – It disappeared into thin air, and all of a sudden — they were off the air. Down in Jasper, Alabama, WJLX suddenly discovered its radio tower was stolen. A landscaping crew had showed up at the site to do some cleaning and maintenance when they realized the 200-foot high steel structure had been taken.
Speaking to WBRC, a FOX television affiliate in Birmingham, station manager Brett Elmore said “I have tried all weekend to figure it out, and I just can’t. I have been in the radio business, around it all my life and then in it professionally for 26 years, and I can say I have never heard of anything like this. I can say I’ve seen it all now.”
The landscaper explained someone had cut the tower’s wires and taken other equipment as well.
Elmore was stunned to receive the call from the landscaper: “I said, ‘What do you mean the tower is gone? Are you sure you are at the right place?’ He said, ‘The tower is gone. There is wires everywhere, and it is gone.'” The station manager posted on Facebook concerning the situation and says he’s working with federal investigators as they look into the crime. “This really hurts a small operation like this, but like I said, I believe we will find out who did this. It is a federal crime and it absolutely will not be worth it to them,” Elmore explained. The suspects could receive a fine or up to 10 years behind bars, if caught.
