A historic bell was stolen from a Jersey Shore fire station
“We just want our history back.”
A beloved copper and tin bell was forged in Ohio in 1909, then hung outside a Jersey Shore fire department for over a century. Now, it’s missing.
Firefighters in Pleasantville, Atlantic County, had recently commissioned a new stand and memorial for the bell to preserve the department’s history. Then, earlier this week, they realized the bell, weighing an estimated several hundred pounds, was gone, and they’re hoping some thieves will have a change of heart.
“We just want our history back,“ Battalion Chief Eric Moran told The Inquirer Wednesday. “You can drop it off at our doorstep or tell us where to go find it. It’s disheartening. We’re one of the oldest departments in South Jersey, but we don’t have a lot of history.”
A Facebook post the fire department made about the missing bell has been shared nearly 7,000 times, and Moran has been scouring eBay to make sure it doesn’t pop up there. He said the bell had to be moved with a front-end loader when it was placed behind the fire department for storage and whoever took it likely had help.
Police have been notified, he said, but he’d rather have the bell returned with no questions asked.
“Again, we just want our history back,” he said.
Evidence from the scene led him to believe the culprits used a pallet jack to move the bell before loading it onto a truck or van. There were no surveillance cameras nearby.
“We’re thinking this happened in the last four or five days,” he said.
Most commenters on Facebook suggested the department reach out to local scrap yards and Moran has. He’s hoping scrap yard owners, or even antique dealers, would pause when approached with an item like the bell.
Many on Facebook wondered why the bell was being stored outside, and Moran said there simply wasn’t room for it.
“It’s not like you can move a pair of boots and put the bell there,” he said.