HAMBURG, Pa. - Three men were caught when they returned to a popular railroad museum to steal more metal, according to the police.

Kurt Webber of Palmyra, Lebanon County; David Hartman, of Bethel; and Eric Reppert, of Fredericksburg, were arrested after the police said they tried to steal copper, aluminum, and battery materials near the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum.

"This initially started out in the early hours Saturday morning with one of the officers receiving a call that there was a break-in at the Blue Mountain Train Museum on South Third Street in Hamburg,” said Hamburg Police Chief Anthony Kuklinski.

Reading and Northern Railroad police sent out images of missing materials to area scrap yards.

A patrol early Monday morning prompted by the reports led to the arrest of the individuals outside the museum, but not before the railroad police gave chase and Hamburg police were brought in to assist.

Damage estimates are rising.

“As the victims go through the equipment that’s down there they’re finding thousands, actually closer to hundreds of thousands, of dollars worth of damage as a result of individuals in there stealing scrap metal from them,” Kuklinski said

According to police, employees at Laurel Street Recyclers in Reading recognized the stolen items and alerted authorities.

But at least this time most of them were apprehended, for what little that proves to be worth:

https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/berks/3- ... 97aba.html

Would/could this be considered a federal offense due to being on railroad property?

...were arrested after the police said they tried to steal copper, aluminum, and battery materials near the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum.

Reading and Northern Railroad police sent out images of missing materials to area scrap yards.

A patrol early Monday morning prompted by the reports led to the arrest of the individuals outside the museum, but not before the railroad police gave chase and Hamburg police were brought in to assist.

They got copper tubing from one of our RDCs and traction motors cables were either removed or cut from 3 locomotives, an mu, and a slug. Cut into small pieces and stripped of insulation.. Even if we do get it back we can't do anything with it.

Fortunately they didn't hit any of our operable or close to operable locomotives. 103, 3412, 2719, 5308, 5513 and 621 are unhurt. The previous batch of thieves did cut a traction motor cable on 5204. But left it when they realized it was aluminum. 6300 had cables cut but not taken. Was missing cables since I've been a member.

I read on Facebook that it was indeed the RCT&HS museum that was hit. Here are some of the details from there:

Crap. They have one of the two last existing US built FM Trainmaster's there, cut down to a slug by NS, I wonder if it escaped. It's a long way from ever being restored (originally a Wabash unit) but having the traction motor cables stolen wouldn't help.

Unfortunately, Mike said that one of the units hit was a slug, and I'm pretty sure the only slug that we have is the ex-NS slug #9905.

I was afraid of that. It seems like every meth head in the country knows about traction motor cable value. I wish there was a solution to thefts, perhaps embed something poisonous or radioactive in them that only is released when cut? J/K, but it is a serious problem. And I'll bet these losers don't have incomes or anything that could be used to pay restitution.

I wish there was a solution to thefts, perhaps embed something poisonous or radioactive in them that only is released when cut? J/K