East St. Louis Metal Thieves Leave Dangerous Holes
As sorta a hobby I enjoy looking around East St. Louis. In July I was exploring the area to the west of the Emerson Park MetroLink station (aerial), I was shocked to see how many manhole covers and sewer grates were missing. Here are some examples:
The curbs, sidewalks, and yes sewers all look relatively new, perhaps redone in 2001 when the adjacent light rail station opened? If you remember the saga of rescuing Jessica McClure from a backyard well then you can understand how dangerous these are and why old tires are in some.
— Steve Patterson
I remember Jessica McClure and I read the many stories of dogs that end up sewers for the same reason. East St. Louis is a dumping ground for unwanted dogs. Gateway Pet Guardians continues to feed and rescue so many of them and this is another reason why their work is so important
What’s more shocking to you? That they’ve been stolen, or that they haven’t been replaced so that they can be stolen again? Until there’s a serious crackdown on scrap metal theft, this will continue.
I think the article’s title would be more appropriate to read, “Metal Thieves Leave Dangerous Holes in East St. Louis”.
The current title suggests that the metal thieves are from East St. Louis when we don’t know that as a fact.