A homeless man stole aircraft warning lights from Boston’s Zakim Bridge and left them at historical sites around the city, state police said Wednesday.
Clifford W. Beckford, 34, who was arrested Tuesday evening, has been charged with breaking and entering, larceny, receiving stolen property, malicious destruction of property, committing injury to a bridge and defacement of property.
Massachusetts State Policesay they began investigating after Beckford stole a red beacon — measuring 18 inches in diameter and 3 feet tall and weighing at least 60 pounds — around 9 p.m. on Feb. 3.
Beckford allegedly walked up a ramp to reach the Zakim Bridge, broke into the bridge’s south tower, climbed a ladder to the top and took the beacon. Police say he then came down the ladder and left the beacon in the snow bank on the side of I-93, went to his car parked nearby, drove to the side, put it in his car and drove away.
Beckford, who police say lives out of his car, was arrested near a relative’s Melrose home, but police still had to find the beacon.
Authorities say their investigation led them to the Warren Tavern in Charlestown, the state’s oldest tavern, which counts famous figures such as George Washington and Paul Revere as past customers.
State troopers went to the tavern and, after speaking with the manager, found the beacon in the establishment’s cellar. Beckford had left the beacon outside the tavern recently, and an employee took it inside without knowing what it was, authorities said.
This wasn’t Beckford’s first time stealing a Zakim Bridge airplane warning beacon, state police say their investigation showed.
He stole another beacon sometime in the early 2000s during the bridge’s construction, when the beacon was property of an electrical contractor and was never reported stolen, police said.
As state police investigated further, they found that the beacon stolen in the 2000s was recently left at the office of The Bostonian Society, which currently operates out of the Old State House Museum in Boston, another historical site in the city.
Police say neither the Warren Tavern, The Bostonian Society nor the Old State House Museum knew where the beacons had come from and were not involved in the thefts.
Information on a lawyer for Beckford was not immediately available.
Beckford was arraigned Wednesday and was ordered to undergo a 20-day mental health evaluation.