Most people wouldn’t think of stealing a historical artifact to cover their debts, let alone a historic cannon. However, this was the scheme Gordon Pierce came up with. The Kansas man recently got into trouble with his boss after the meth he was supposed to sell was stolen. Now $20,000 in debt, Pierce feared for his life as his boss threatened to shoot him if he didn’t return the lost money.
As you may have already guessed, Pierce didn’t have that much money and was distressed and scared. While driving through Riverside Park, he passed by a copper historic cannon, a relic from the Spanish-American War, and got the idea to steal and sell it. The cannon was located in a relatively dark, quiet area, which made it an easy target. But, since the cannon weighed around 800 pounds, he couldn’t steal it alone.
The Kansas man decided to bribe a homeless man with drugs. The two even got high on meth before attempting the theft, perhaps believing it would bring them luck. They managed to drag the cannon using a truck by chaining it to the vehicle’s hitch. Though the chain snapped in the middle of the road, the man managed to reattach a new one and continued.
Once he reached his destination, our thief brought the cannon into the garage and cut it into pieces. When he presented his stolen items to his boss, the man was furious. He yelled at Pierce, called it a stupid move, and warned that it would only bring more trouble. The boss even threatened to shoot Pierce in the head the next time they met. Scared, Pierce came clean to his mother and went to sleep from exhaustion. He woke up surrounded by police and was then arrested.
Many people were flabbergasted by the story, unable to believe anyone could come up with such a ludicrous plan. “Was his drug dealer a pirate?” one Redditor joked. Others expressed concern about the state of the historic cannon, questioning whether it could even be restored. “So do they like weld the cannon back together or…??” another user asked.
Some began to reflect on how many other valuable historical artifacts may have been destroyed by the desperate actions of addicts or those in debt. “How many antiquities over time have met similar fates because some ancient couldn’t pay their opium dealer or some medieval drunkard couldn’t pay the tavern keep?” one commenter wondered.
