Thieves make off with 45 tons of railway track
More than a kilometre of steel track lifted from station depot
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Thieves recently liberated more than a kilometre of steel train track in Viitasaari in Central Finland. The stacked-away railway line disappeared from the Keitelepohja station depot over the weekend. The crime was discovered on Monday morning when the laying of the track was meant to start.
According to VR Track Ltd, which specialises in track design, construction, and maintenance mainly for the Finnish Rail Administration (RHK), the utility value of the stolen track is about EUR 10,000. Police estimate that its value as scrap metal is more or less the same. Given the nature of the item concerned, it is hard to imagine anyone having any other good use for it.
In all, fifty 22-metre pieces of train track weighing 45 tons were taken, presumably by using a full trailer truck. The thieves have gone to some trouble to collect the steel. More than likely, the individual pieces have first been cut into four by means of arc-welding equipment. This work alone must have taken a day or a day and a half. A trailer truck has then picked up the finished goods.
The tracks were piled up on both sides of the track in a place that is not directly visible from the nearby roads. Nobody appears to have seen anything untoward going on.
The police are investigating the incident as aggravated theft.
Helsingin Sanomat
