A strange crime has people on Long Island scratching their heads, wondering who would steal a piece of antique machinery.
Police say a World War I German MG-08 machine gun has gone missing. The device was stolen from the Suffolk County Detachment of the Marine Corps in Bay Shore. It's just off Sunrise Highway.
"It was originally out front but we decided to put it on the roof because we thought somebody would steal it," Air Force veteran Anthony Siano said Monday.
The vets believe that whoever did this came prepared, considering what the thieves went through in order to bring down more than one hundred pounds of metal from a rooftop.
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The heavy gun, worth approximately $20,000, appears to have vanished over the weekend.
"Either had an idea of selling it, maybe to a collector," Carmine Raineri of the Suffolk County Detachment Marine Corps League said.
Military armaments historian Dan Templeton, with the Museum of American Armor, says the stolen weapon has gone through a decommission process which makes it inoperable and lacks value without a registered background.
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"Without that context, it's just a bunch of rusty metal," Templeton said.
The mysterious heist has led members of the Marine Corps outfit in Bay Shore to wonder if the Oscar-contending movie "All Quiet on the Western Front," portraying combat during World War I, has created some buzz that led to someone interested in such items.
"It was painted gray, it was on a sled-mount, it was heavy. The Germans used to use that in the trenches," Siano said.
"That particular machine gun would have been one of the central players in the first World War and through the second World War, as well," Templeton added.
Retired marines just want it back to honor their legacy in combat during foreign wars.
The Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage says the thief is going to find any legitimate buys willing to accept to stolen artifact without proper documentation.
