RANGELEY – Police say someone attempted to steal a $10,000 sensor on an automated weather observation system at the municipal airport Thursday night.
Among the items the system monitors is visibility for incoming aircraft. Two central cables to the main sensor were unscrewed and one cable about one-quarter inch in diameter was cut and the second cable was partially damaged but not severed, Rangeley police officer Michael Hall said Friday.
The town put a fence around the system in early November.
An internal computer system indicated that the damage occurred at 8:25 p.m. Thursday, Hall said. Town Manager Perry Ellsworth said the sensor unit has to be sent to Colorado to determine if the sensor was damaged.
The sensor gives incoming airplanes a visibility reading and a check of the cloud ceiling. When the device is returned, it will have to be recalibrated, recertified and reinstalled, Ellsworth said Friday.
He estimated the cost to do all that would be $3,000, and would be more if the sensor is damaged. Ellsworth said officials are not sure if a circuit board was damaged. The vandalism “makes no sense to any of us,” Ellsworth said. The remaining part of the observation system is operational, he said.
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