SOUTH CHARLESTON, Ohio (AP) -- Police say someone has stolen the remaining Civil War-era cannon balls from a military memorial in a South Charleston cemetery.
The Springfield News-Sun reports that the nine cannon balls were all that remained of a pyramid of 30 or 40 believed to have been installed in 1909 to honor those who served or died in the Civil War. They were atop a soldier's memorial in South Charleston's Greenlawn Cemetery.
The president of the village's heritage commission says the hollowed-out cannon balls were part of a larger grouping gradually reduced over a century of theft. George Berkhofer says they weighed between 32 to 40 pounds each and were about 6 to 8 inches in diameter.
Authorities speculate they could have been taken for sale or scrap purposes or as a prank.
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