Memorial artifacts stolen from 9/11 Flight Crew Memorial, Grapevine police say
GRAPEVINE — Two precious and irreplaceable artifacts were stolen from their enclosure in Grapevine which signifies the moments hundreds of men and women lost their lives.
Grapevine police were called to the 9/11 Flight Crew Memorial at 1000 Texan Trail on Monday and told the stone from the crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania and the limestone fragment from the impact zone of the Pentagon were missing from their enclosures.
"For someone to take these, it's heartless," said Mona Quintanilla, with the City of Grapevine.
"Those crews were real people, they were my friends. This was terrorism on our soil. Something we in America are not used to seeing," American Airlines pilot Cindy Dawson said. "Those airplanes are my passion. Like Beverley Bass says, they turned something we love into bombs intentionally to hurt people. They were reminders. We must never forget what cruelty does."
Grapevine police are trying to make sense of the crime.
"This is personal to all of us," said Amanda McNew, with Grapevine Police. "We want them back, we want to remember. We want to honor everyone."
Detectives are trying to establish a timeline as to when the stones were last confirmed to be inside the memorial enclosures while they review surveillance video from the area.
"These stones are a vital piece of history that allows us to remember and pay tribute to the flight crew members, and all who were lost on September 11, 2001," the City of Grapevine said in a statement.
Anyone who has information about the stolen Memorial stones is asked to contact Sergeant Oscar Ramirez at oramirez@grapevinetexas.gov.