Anonymous Caller Gives Locations Of Vintage Wings

A sad story appears to have a happy ending. Two vintage aircraft wings were recovered last week, days after the trailer carrying the Lockheed parts was stolen from a parking lot near Falcon Field Airport in Mesa, AZ.

As ANN reported, the Wingspan Aviation Heritage Foundation reported the dual axle low-profile trailer containing approximately 2,500 pounds of vintage Lockheed fixed-wing aircraft parts stolen July 14.

The stolen parts included the complete 36' aircraft wing section from a T-33 trainer, and a right-hand wing panel off a PV-2.

After calls to local metal salvage shops failed to turn up any leads, organization member Robert Kropp told ANN the foundation believed the thief may have just wanted the trailer, unaware of the value of its contents.

That theory appears to have been the case. The East Valley Tribune reports an anonymous caller to Falcon Field told Kropp the location of the trailer and one wing Friday... then called back the next day with the location where officials could find the second wing.

"We don’t know at this point who the caller was," said Mesa police spokesman Sgt. Ed Wessing. "He would only speak with the victim and would only identify himself as Fred. The phone numbers came up private."

Investigators were able to pull fingerprints off one of the recovered items, and are now comparing them against a national database.

FMI: www.wingspanair.org/