Springfield police acting on a tip Tuesday arrested a boy suspected of stealing a copper sword from atop Abraham Lincoln’s tomb.
The 3-foot sword was snapped off at the hilt from the hand of a Civil War artillery officer statue between September and early November, according to a police news release.
The boy, whose age was not released, told detectives he climbed the statue and grabbed the sword, which fell to the ground and broke in two, police said. He first said he panicked and hid the pieces behind a nearby shopping center, but then he told police he hid them in a broken-down van a few blocks from the cemetery.
Police found the pieces of the sword in the van. Two other people whom police suspect were at the cemetery with the boy could face trespassing charges, police said.