Some time ago I was working for British Rail as Area Manager at Haverfordwest in west Wales. A little time before the line to Cardigan had been abandoned and was being torn up. There was a steel bridge over a country road which had been sold to a contractor. The road was not too busy and it was arranged for the police to set up a diversion for a day while the bridge was removed. The work had been arranged to be done on a Monday.

The Sunday before the work was due to be done a contractor went into a local police station and asked if they would allow them to take the bridge down that day rather than on the following day. The police were very cooperative and quickly arranged the diversions.

The contractor worked quickly and by mid-afternoon the bridge had been-taken down, cut up and loaded into a truck.
Next morning the contractor who had the contract to remove the bridge arrived at the site and was surprised to find that the bridge had already been removed!

We never did find out who stole the bridge or what happened to it. Maybe it was the same gang who stole 15 miles of copper wire from the pole route along Pembroke Dock Branch one Sunday evening.