Grand Theft Liberty

{reading time: 11 minutes}

Copper in my veins, ghost in these walls
Every stripped wire tells a story of the fall

Copper Wire Confessions | Виктор Флеймс | 2024

Clueless in Seattle

In the early morning hours of a sleepy Seattle Saturday, brazen bandits stole a 2080-pound Liberty Bell replica from a beloved veterans cemetery. And they might have gotten away with it if not for a few meddling bell lovers. Dignity Memorial and its parent company, SCI, the four-billion-dollar death-care behemoth and largest private owner of Liberty Bells*, were down one replica for 48 stressful hours.

What’s a Liberty Bell doing at a cemetery?

The 1976 U.S. Bicentennial celebration saw a resurgence in popular symbols of American patriotism — particularly the Liberty Bell. London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry, which cast the OG Liberty Bell in 1752, ran a promotion offering to produce a limited edition of 100 full-size replicas. They’d sell only two to each state, to the first towns to send in a downpayment check. While the foundry fell significantly short of their goal, several small American towns — like Charleston, Illinois and Pocatello, Idaho — took the deal and still proudly display their monuments.

France’s storied Paccard Bell Foundry, which cast the 57 U.S. Treasury replicas in 1950, also got their piece of the patriotic action. Spearheaded by the incomparable Foy Eldeen Bryant, cemeteries across the country bought Liberty Bell replicas and paraded them on floats around town with banners promoting their businesses. When the Bicentennial fervor settled, the bells found final resting places alongside the graveyards’ other permanent residents. They’re rung on patriotic holidays and during funerals for veterans.

When Evergreen Washelli owner, Dave Daly, purchased the bell some time before 1976, he was told it was one of 27 cast at that time. At least 14 Liberty Bell replicas can be seen and heard today in cemeteries (most of them rebranded as Memorial Gardens) as far and wide as Coon Rapids, Minnesota, Gotha, Florida and Hollywood, California (one of the less popular attractions in the celebrity-packed, self-described Disneyland of Death).

Evergreen Washelli’s Liberty Bell carved out a similar history. Shortly after the Bicentennial, it seemed to find a permanent home on cemetery grounds. In recent decades, it was mounted on the back of a trailer to more easily move to particular parts of the property. On Memorial Day, 2021, flanked by 500 tiny American flags and serenaded with bagpipes, the replica rang out to honor veterans who paid the ultimate price for our liberty.

A promotional brochure chronicles their bell’s origin story:

Evergreen-Washelli’s Liberty Bell journeyed throughout the Puget Sound area during the nation’s Bicentennial year, 1976. As a long­time member of the greater Seattle community, Evergreen-Washelli has continued to express its support of the American spirit by the display of this symbol of our nation’s freedom at community fairs, parades and other celebrations.

Citizen sleuths

On February 22, 2025, a Seattleite (let’s call them Resident 1) commented on this site, saying, “I saw a nice newer-looking replica today in the maintenance yard behind a cemetery, Evergreen Washelli Columbarium, in the Northgate area of Seattle, WA.”

On March 1, 2025, a second Seattleite (let’s call them Resident 2) emailed me asking if I knew of any missing Liberty Bells. They noticed a sketchy-looking dual trailer in their neighborhood with no license plate or attached vehicle. This was not the first missing Liberty Bell tip I’ve received, so I didn’t get my hopes up.

I had a sneaking suspicion it was related to the comment from the previous week. Resident 2 sent me some photos and I compared them to pictures of the Evergreen Washelli Liberty Bell in better days. It sure seemed like a match. As we emailed back and forth, they told me police called them back and confirmed that Evergreen Washelli had reported the bell stolen.

Here we go again

We’ve been down this road a time or two. In 1979, Washington, DC’s official replica vanished after being temporarily moved during a construction project. Nearly thirty years passed before anyone really noticed. Enterprising PR man and history mystery detective Josh Gibson proved the replica displayed between the U.S. Treasury Building and the White House was not DC’s bell, but an additional replica the Treasury had on hand. Gibson spread the word, and he (and I) got several tips from Virginia to Montreal. None panned out. Personally, I think some scoundrel scrapped it in the early 80s. But I’d love to be proven wrong.

Mother lode

Let’s say you’re in the less-than-legal copper reclaimation business. You acquire copper pipes from abandoned or under-construction buildings. You strip the copper wire out of cable lines and off utility poles. You sell it to a no-questions-asked scrapyard. $20 here, $40 there. $200 for a good night’s work. Then you see a Liberty Bell sitting quietly in the maintenance yard next to an equally quiet cemetery. You Google “What’s a Liberty Bell weigh?” Then you dial 2080 pounds into a Bronze scrap calculator. $5,2000. The mother lode. Now you just need to find someone who will buy a Liberty Bell. And get it to them.

Chop, chop

While most of these stories take me a leisurely few months to write in my spare time between graphic design and grandpa duties, this story unfolded fast.

A few things became clear as I was exchanging emails with the resident: they’re telling the truth, they don’t want their name published (understandably) and they — like me and any red-blooded American — don’t want to see this replica sold for scrap or to some reclusive billionaire who will surely use it to ring in the opening ceremony where he and his billionaire buds hunt regular people for sport on his private island.

So what’s the best way to assure that doesn’t happen? Quietly let the police do their thing? Shout it out loud from the rooftops? I don’t know. But I went with option two. I left a tip with Seattle’s KING 5 News late Saturday night. I woke up the next morning and hadn’t heard anything back. I assumed both the police and news had more important things to cover. Understandable.

Then I got a call and another call and a text from KING 5’s Bridget Chavez. A half hour later, I’m doing a Zoom interview.

News at 10:00 (11:00 Mountain)

I needed to publish some version of the story before the piece aired, so I did — short, typo-laden and with little narrative arc to speak of. Eleven is too late to watch myself on the news, so I went live with the scoop and went to bed.

Hope springs

KING 5’s piece started with footage of the bell tolling during a recent holiday celebration, mixed in with b-roll they shot that day, and the photos Residents One & Two let me post and share.

I felt cautiously optimistic that it helped get the word out. Hopefully, the police would prioritize the investigation, the thieves might get cold feet, and prospective shady scrappers think twice before buying a hot Liberty Bell.

Later Monday morning, KING 5 reported the trailer had been found but the bell was no longer on it. My heart sank. It seemed like the thieves had unloaded the bell and dumped the rest of the evidence. I shared the news clip with my coworkers and enjoyed my fifteen seconds of fame, but I worried our efforts had the opposite effect — the burglars hustled to get a deal done and get gone.

On a lunchtime dog walk with Dawn, her phone rang. “Yes, he’s right here. Let me put him on.” Odd. On the other end of the line (still don’t know how he got Dawn’s number) was Louie Tran from KIRO 7. “Hey, I heard you helped find a stolen Liberty Bell. Would love to interview you.” I corrected him and said that I helped get the word out, but it was still missing as far as I knew. “Very well, I’ll send you a Zoom link and talk to you in a few.”

All I’d need is Channel 4 for the Seattle trifecta.

Louie asked incisive questions and challenged me to consider what the bell-nappers might have done with their booty. Is there a black market for stolen bells? I laid out what I thought the most likely scenario: the scrapyard. I suppose an unwilling antique dealer might buy whatever false provenance the hawkers offered. And there’s always the rich eccentric who buys things just because they can’t (or shouldn’t) be sold.

“How would you feel if I told you the bell has been found?”

….

“Because they found it a few miles from the cemetery this morning.”

Whaaaaat?!

That was some good television right there. I rushed back to my desk to let Resident 1 & 2 know their efforts paid off.

Straightening the scoop

Evergreen Washelli General Manager Scott Sheehan reached out with kind words and critical details and gave me surveillance footage his neighbors provided. He explained that the report of his crew leaving to get gas and returning to find the storage yard locks cut, gate open, and bell missing was inaccurate.

As video time codes confirm, before 4:09 am Saturday, bandits hitched the Liberty Bell trailer up to a white pickup truck. Not even taking the time to remove construction debris stored in front of the bell, they could have been in and out in under a minute.

The cemetery superintendent discovered the breach around 9:00 am, informed Sheehan and called Seattle Police shortly thereafter — more than an hour after Resident 2 reported the suspicious trailer. The thieves had used bolt cutters to enter the storage yard, but the alarm was not tripped until the Evergreen Washelli crew tripped it while exploring the scene of the crime. Sheehan suspects at least two people and two trucks were involved in the heist.

Bell bandits bust loose before the break of dawn.

Sometime between 4:09 and 7:45 am, the bell boosters piled garbage on the trailer in an attempt to obscure the bell, which they loosely draped with a big blue tarp.

The trailer’s trail

Based on security footage and Resident 2’s sighting, the heisters headed south on Aurora, west on 105th, diagonally down Holman and south on 9th where they left their load in the vicinity of 87th and 9th for perhaps a few hours before moving it again. Forty-eight hours after Resident 2 called police, the bell and trailer (with a slightly better tarp job) were discovered on 83rd Street near 13th Avenue.

What went wrong?

For the bell thieves, almost everything. Reddit user Captain Drew heard a bang early Saturday morning and woke to witness a white truck struggling to pull a trailer up the hill. They checked their security camera and confirmed it was the bell bandits. Resident 2 suspected the thieves were dumber than the trailer in their neighborhood — somewhat hidden beside a six-foot fence — until they could procure some more towing power. Evergreen Washelli’s brochure lists the all-in weight of their bell and trailer at 4,500 pounds.

Around noon on Saturday, Beth Howe, a resident of the Ballard neighborhood, observed two men, two trucks and the trailer on 83rd Street near 13th Avenue. The men were in the process of reapplying a tarp to the load. She could not see what was beneath the tarp but felt suspicious (the two men were covering their faces).

Put a bow on it

My Seattle press tour ended the way every junket should, with a visit to the Jake & Spike show. We talked Liberty Bell history, this site’s origin story, and had a few laughs.

 

Justice for Liberty

Now all that’s left is to bring the bell bandits to justice and send a message to other would-be replica snatchers that you don’t mess with mother liberty. When I wrote to Resident 2 to congratulate them for cracking the case, they were feeling all the good patriotic feels, but not overly hopeful the thieves would be caught, “This has been a positive experience for Seattle. (The theft) probably was a whim — maybe even just one guy — scrambling around after he made off with it, trying to cover up this humongous THING. He’s thinking “Now, what??!!” No place to put it and he’d been SEEN! So he ditched it. Someday he’ll be in a bar, telling his story — maybe a cop hears it.”

Or, you can anonymously tip off the Seattle Police Department at (206) 233-5000.

Break it down now

Here’s a timeline of events:

3.1.2025 | before 4:08 am: Thieves cut locks, hook Liberty Bell trailer to their truck and drive off.

3.1.2025 | 4:08 am: Neighbor’s security cameras capture a white pickup truck speeding off with the Liberty Bell and minimal construction debris.

3.1.2025 | 7:54 am: A resident of the Crown Hill neighborhood sees and photographs a suspicious trailer in their neighborhood. The trailer holds an old mattress, freezer, construction detritus, and a full-size, functional Liberty Bell replica.

3.1.2025 | 7:58 am: They call the Seattle Police Department’s non-emergency number. The police tell them, essentially: That’s interesting. Call us back if you see anyone with the bell.

3.1.2025 | between 7:58 am and 12:12 pm: Evergreen Washelli representatives called the Seattle Police Department to report their Liberty Bell missing.

3.1.2025 | 12:12 pm: SPD calls the resident back and confirms that the bell has been reported stolen. The resident informs police that the trailer is gone.

3.1.2025 | 10:19 pm: I leave a news tip on the KING 5 website.

3.2.2025 | 4:23 pm: KING 5 responds asking if I can connect them to the resident. I ask the resident. They’re (understandably) not interested. Good news: I get to feel like a real journalist protecting my sources. Bad news: I get to do a Zoom interview with KiNG 5 reporter.

3.2.2025 | 10:00 pm: The story airs.

3.2.2025 | am: On his appointed rounds in the Whittier Heights neighborhood, Seattle Parking Department Officer Michael Eaton spots a suspicious trailer at 83rd St near 13th Ave. Hidden beneath a big blue tarp: the Liberty Bell.

* Dignity Memorial (by acquisition more than intention, per se) owns at least eight full-size functional Liberty Bell replicas. 

Thanks to Resident 1 and Resident 2. Without your comments, I likely would not have heard about this story until after the excitement. Thanks to Scott Sheehan from Evergreen Washelli for providing real time updates even as he was doing his own press junket. Thanks to Bridget Chavez from KING 5 for letting me act like a journalist, and protect my sources. Thanks to Louie Tran from KIRO 7 for creating some quality television by telling me the bell had been found whilst interviewing me (though I did not get to see that portion on air). Thanks to Laura Scott, Jake and Spike. Thanks to all of the above for allowing me to share their stories, quotes and photos.