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No, it hadn’t been hauled off by thieves looking to trade it in for cash. Nor was it heisted as a high school prank.
The U.S. Navy took it.
Navy Cmdr. Kurt Hedberg told La Crosse police Tuesday the Navy removed the anchor from outside the building at 2226 Green Bay St. because it was federal property.
Hedberg was in charge of removing all federal property from the building when it was turned over to the city Dec. 31, 2007. The Navy had ceased operations at the station May 25, 2007, police said.
The 6-foot-tall, 500-pound gray-blue anchor with wrap-around black chain made national news Monday after it was reported stolen by Tom Sweeney, chairman of the Naval Reserve Center Memorial Oversight Committee. It could have been taken anytime between Dec. 31, 2007, and Wednesday, he said.
Hedberg said Tuesday the anchor was removed in November or December and taken to the Navy’s Operational Support Center in Minneapolis after he didn’t receive a request to keep the anchor at the La Crosse site and couldn’t find a base that wanted it.
Sweeney disagreed that the anchor is federal property, saying from what he understood, it was given to the center after the U.S. Army post where it once stood lost its designation.
“We were told it was not the Navy’s. They need to convince us that it’s theirs. I wish they told us they were taking it,” Sweeney said. “We need to get to bottom of this.”
The anchor never was assigned to a ship and has been outside the station since it was commissioned in 1949.
If the anchor is not federal property, Sweeney said the center would like it returned so it can be included as part of a planned memorial at the site.
Anne Jungen can be reached at (608) 791-8224 or ajungen@lacrossetribune.com.
