LIVERMORE FALLS – When a friend stopped by Sunday to tell Pat Knowlton some of the flags she and her husband, Wayne, had used to line the bridge on Route 4 were snapped off, she couldn’t believe it.

Thirteen of the 50 small flags were broken, she said.

Whoever broke them didn’t take the flags, she added; they dropped them on the ground.

Her husband had made a special wooden block holder for each of the flags so they could be set on the side of the bridge.

“I went by the bridge at 9:30 Saturday evening and everything was good,” Knowlton said. “I was tickled to death. I said, ‘My God, it’s right.'”

It happened after that, she said.

“It’s too bad. They didn’t want the flags,” Knowlton said. “They destroyed them for no reason. They just left them on the ground. We think some may have fallen into the (Androscoggin River.)”

It had taken her husband more than eight hours to make the blocks, she said.

Once the Knowltons learned of the vandalism, they set to work to replace them Sunday, before Memorial Day.

“More people commented on how nice they looked,” she said.

Next year, they hope to line the other side of the bridge.

Police Lt. Thomas Gould said police are hoping someone will come forward with information about the broken flags. It is believed the incident happened late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

Most of the flags were left on the side of the bridge, except one, which was found sticking out of the vinyl siding in front of the Riverview Pub on Depot Street, Gould said.