Crime & Safety
How Do You Fence a Stolen Gate? Chop It Up in Place, Apparently
Whoever stole a 15-foot iron gate from the side of the Maple Island building appears to have used a torch to cut it into pieces on-site, according to a Stillwater police report.
Call it Gategate.
Someone found a way to steal a heavy, 15-foot iron gate in downtown Stillwater, and a police report suggests the method was cutting it into pieces right there on Main Street.
According to the police report:
The gate disappeared from the north side of the building at 225 Main St. N. sometime between Oct. 20–25. Workers had removed it from its hinges and standards during construction on the building, leaning the gate against the north wall of the building, where there is a patio.
In two places on the concrete pad, there were signs of a torch having been used to cut the "very large, over 15 sq feet [gate] into pieces so it could apparently be loaded into a vehicle and brought to be sold."
The gate is worth $1,500. There is no information on suspects.
Frank Fabio, a contractor from Grant, owns the building that was formerly home to Maple Island Hardware—and prior to that—Maple Island Creamery.
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