UPDATE: Audacious thieves stealing steel

Thieves made of with 1.6 kilometres of pipe between Cornwallis Park and Moose River sometime in the first week of May. And much of the pipe was either buried in the ground or running through wooden enclosures.

Annapolis RCMP Const. Dale Guy said Friday that 110 pieces of pipe, 40 feet long and two feet in diameter, were dug up by an excavator and sold to an unsuspecting scrap metal dealer in Marshalltown.

Guy said that scrap iron is fetching about $200 a ton and he estimates that the pipe dug up from an old water system along the abandoned railway line weighed about 120 tons and might have been worth as much as $24,000. One report said thieves received $12,000.

It was a complaint about noisy night work that led to the discovery of the theft. Rick Jacques, the Rails to Trails coordinator for the region, said he was contacted early last week by a Cornwallis resident who was upset by the late night noise coming from the rail bed.

“We weren’t doing any work,” said Jacques.

A check with the Department of Natural Resources, who owns the property, and the County of Annapolis, determined that they were not doing any work. Jacques went to Cornwallis and discovered that excavators had torn up the side of the rail bed and removed the pipe.

Annapolis RCMP Const. Dale Guy said police heard from Jacques at 6 p.m. on May 6. RCMP then stopped a truck carrying an excavator and from there were able to determine who was working for whom and where the pipe was being taken.

On May 8, police obtained a search warrant for a Marshalltown scrap metal company.

“The proprietor of the establishment had no idea that the pipe was stolen and cooperated with police throughout the entire operation,” said Guy.

In six truckloads, police hauled away 110 pieces of the five-eighths-inch-thick pipe to an undisclosed location where it is being held as evidence. He said each truckload weighed about 20 tons.

Guy said police have identified suspects and the investigation continues.

“Residents living along the old railway line are upset at what has taken place and the damage it has caused,” Guy said.

After the thieves dug up sections along the rail bed, they laid down straw to cover the mess.

Guy said excavator tracks on the trail run from Moose River, through Cornwallis Park behind Lifeplex, and continue west towards Bear River.

The pipe was originally waterline put in place when Cornwallis was built during the Second World War and was the main source of water to the base and its residents. Over the years, the infrastructure deteriorated and was eventually replaced by the county.

“We had plans for [the pipe], but somebody else apparently had plans for it too,” said Annapolis County warden Peter Newton. “They recognized an opportunity.”

A similar theft of steel pipe is reported to have taken place several days earlier near the former gun range in Granville.