monkeylizard

This was on the local news in Nashville, TN last night.
I've heard of construction site theft, but this one is a step up.
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Thieves will steal most anything. But a funeral home? Strange, but true.

State Highway 79 is being widened in Stewart County by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. It's a major project.

Two years ago TDOT shelled out almost $414,000 for Sykes Funeral Home, which was in the way of the road construction.

TDOT planned to auction off the funeral home, but had held up because the governor's staff wanted to keep all available buildings for possible housing for Katrina hurricane victims.

A TDOT staff member drove to Dover two weeks ago to check on the funeral home property. All she found was a little rubble where the funeral home use to be located.

A thief, or probably a band of thieves, had stripped it from top to bottom, from inside to outside and then bulldozed what little was left, meaning a few bricks and the foundation.

A TDOT spokeswoman says this has got to be the state agencies greatest unsolved mystery.

"It's the first time in history that somebody has swiped a building right order our feet," she added.

Missing is the vinyl siding, exterior trim, drywall, carpet, lighting fixtures, plumbing, central air and heat, doors, windows, and fixtures in four bathrooms, and much, much more, including exterior photographs of the funeral home. Also missing was 46 shrubs.

In order to find the guilty parties, the state agency has called in the TBI, the Stewart County sheriff, and David Hicks, investigator for the district attorney

It shouldn't be too hard. Investigators already believe they know a couple of the suspects.

They reportedly were seen hauling off parts of the funeral home building and more.

Can you believe it? TDOT officials can't.