An Allentown kayaker has some detective work in store after finding a cache of military grave markers in the Lehigh River.
Joe Brozowski says he found 46 of the small markers in shallow water near a Catasauqua bridge last month.
"I noticed exactly what they were," he told the Morning Call. "The number of them was a pretty sad sight."
"I just kept finding more and more and more of them," he told NBC Philadelphia.
Veterans groups and local governments usually place the markers to honor military service. But in recent years they have become an all-too common target for thieves eyeing the value of their metal.
Brozowski loaded the heavy booty into his kayak and hauled them home. He hopes to return the markers to their rightful place.
"I'm an American, [I] appreciate the veterans," he said. "These guys did their service."
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But his task is complicated by the fact they do not bear the names of individual soldiers. He says some appear to honor service dating back to the Civil War.
The men hope each marker will be returned.
"It's been going on for four or five years now," Paul Fiske of Allentown, who helped organize the Lehigh Valley Veterans History Project Round Table told the Morning Call. "If they're old markers … they can be sold for the value of the metal."
There are no signs of corrosion, suggesting they were dumped recently.
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