American Notes CRIME

Every schoolboy knows the one about the con man trying to sell a sucker the Brooklyn Bridge. But two New Yorkers seem to have succeeded in marketing it piece by piece. Ruffino Sauco and John Baressi were arrested Nov. 19 after being spotted prying off 200-lb. sections of the bridge and flinging them down to the shoreline. Workmen had noticed that huge chunks of an aluminum grillwork under the span had been mysteriously disappearing for two days. The apparent motive: selling the metal for scrap. City officials estimate that repairing the damage will cost $37,000. That's no joke.