Historic Czech loco stolen

[John Ashworth]

HISTORIC CZECH LOCO STOLEN
Saturday, 31 May 2008

According to the Czech News Agency (CTK), a historic Czech locomotive was stolen by two thieves. The daily Mlada fronta Dnes was quoted reporting: “A 44-year-old man from Hrusovany and his 43-year-old accomplice came across the historic vehicle stationed on the guarded fenced land plot last December. They persuaded the guard that they had bought the vehicle from its owner, connected it to two horses, then dragged it from the small engine-shed and took it away.

“Prior to the theft the thieves hired a company whose employees then cut the locomotive into pieces which they sold to a scrap metal shop in Brno for which they received almost 100,000 crowns (about R50 000).”

Jiri Kotas, a locomotive collector, told the reporter that the engine had been historically valuable. “Only two types of Polish-made locomotives were used in the Czech Republic and the Ls 150 type was one of them. It is highly probable that it was the only locomotive of its type preserved in its original state in the Czech Republic”.

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