The heaviest public good ever to be stolen was a set of six support beams: five were 40 meters tall and six meters wide, and the sixth was 25 meters long and six meters thick. Put together, the beams weighed over 110 tons. These beams (plus another 100 just like them) supported the Perimetral, an elevated highway in Rio de Janeiro. They were worth roughly R$90,000.
To this day, no one knows for sure when exactly in 2013 they were stolen from the city. And worse: just like the beams, the investigation into their theft disappeared.
The Perimetral was demolished in 2014, but its ghost continues to haunt Rio de Janeiro’s public imaginary since the case of the six missing beams was never resolved.
Nicknamed “The Monster,” the hulking form connected with Avenida Brasil, which runs through 26 neighborhoods in Rio’s north and west zones. Its suspended tentacles reach the bridge between Rio and Niterói, the Santos Dumont Airport, and continuing along the coast, bring drivers to the south zone of the city, unleashing the traffic from the north, from neighboring municipalities, and downtown Rio.
The gigantic structure, which was seen as an eyesore for the touristy port zone, was knocked down. But the question remains: how is it that six beams taller than some city buildings and made from metal capable of lasting up to four centuries (a mixture of steel, niobium, and chromium) could simply be taken?
Leonildo de Assis owns three trucks that were parked in a temporary lot less than 100 meters from the area that the beams were taken from. “The beams were taken away in pieces. A work team labored through the night with a blowtorch and a crane,” he says definitively. “This wall was only built after the crime was committed,” he adds, pointing to the wall that now protects the area, barely able to contain his laughter.
Assis recalls how the police stopped many people driving small trucks after the beams were taken.
“It’s obvious that whoever stole the beams must have been a company with access to a crane, a blowtorch, and at least three 20 meter-long truck beds. Instead of investigating people with the equipment to pull it off, the police harassed us.”
And, just like the beams, the investigation into who was responsible for the theft disappeared.