(The Associated Press circulated the following on January 15, 2009.)
UNION MILLS, Ind. — Authorities believe it may have a railroad buff who stole a large horn from a locomotive parked in northwestern Indiana.
The horn consists of three aluminum trumpets and weighs 10 to 15 pounds. Chesapeake & Indiana Railroad operations manager Don Wantola says whoever stole the horn had to climb on top of the train engine and remove several half-inch bolts.
LaPorte County police say the theft occurred sometime over the weekend.
Footprints were found in the snow around the Chesapeake & Indiana locomotive, which was parked near Union Mills, a rural area about 30 miles east of Gary.
Wantola says a collector of railroad memorabilia was the likely culprit because other items on the train with higher scrap value that were untouched.