Marcus Ranum has alerted me to the fact that the Utah monolith has disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.
The tall, shiny, metal structure, now famously known as a “monolith” was discovered in Utah last week, and had prompted multiple theories about how it had come to be there ranging from TV show set leftover, to art work, to aliens.
But now, almost as mysteriously as it appeared, it has been removed by what local officials called “an unknown party”.
“[We] did not remove the structure which is considered private property,” A Bureau of Land Management spokesperson said in a statement. “The structure has received international and national attention and we received reports that a person or group removed it on the evening of 27 Nov”.
…“All that was left in its place was a message written in the dirt that said ‘bye bitch’ with a fresh pee stain right next to it,” Marino posted to instagram. “Someone had just stolen the statue, and we were the first to arrive at the scene”.
Marino said they saw a pickup truck with a large object in its bed driving in the opposite direction shortly before they got there. A Reddit user also found the structure, which many believed to be abstract art, had been formerly removed.
The object’s origins remain unknown but Bret Hutchings, the helicopter pilot who discovered it, estimated it to be between 10ft and 12ft high (about three metres).
Here’s video of what was left behind. (You can silence the annoying music.)
The structure was not buried as deep into the ground as was thought. We were told that this was pretty remote and rugged terrain. Placing the monolith there surreptitiously would not have been easy. Getting it secretly out again after all the publicity is pretty amazing.
Only aliens could have done it.
xohjoh2n says
The aliens want us to think that, but it was cheaper for them to have Amazon come and collect it.
Rob Grigjanis says
Obviously a prank by a bored Rick Sanchez.
Reginald Selkirk says
What’s with the ‘again’? That would only be appropriate if the same people who installed it also removed it, which is not generally known at this time.
chigau (違う) says
Ask the helicopter pilots.
They are all in on it.
komarov says
For the sake of completeness, it might not have been aliens but God.* They only do about one miracle a year -- divine power isn’t what it used to be -- and felt rather awful about how 2020 has gone. So, in their literally infinite wisdom they settled on doing this to keep everyone mildly entertained. Remember, God moves in mysterious ways which, to an outsider, might give the impression that their priorities are a sad joke.
*The inclined reader’s God, naturally
Silentbob says
Okay, “bye bitch” and a pee stain clearly suggests to me the work of cats.
Lassi Hippeläinen says
It was installed after Trump won the elections. It was removed after he lost. It is clearly the thought control beacon the aliens used to manipulate Trump. Now that it has become useless, they evacuated it, because they don’t want us to know their technology.
hyphenman says
From The Guardian: “[Ricardo] Marino said they saw a pickup truck with a large object in its bed driving in the opposite direction shortly before they got there.”
Since the structure was abandoned on public land there was no theft so, with aluminum at around $40 a pound in Utah, my money says the truck was headed to the nearest scrap yard/recycling center.
mailliw says
It was all organised by the conspiracy theorists who are secretly running the world, while covering their tracks by inventing conspiracy theories.
What a cunning trick of the aliens to disguise their spacecraft as a pickup truck.
StonedRanger says
Scrap aluminum is being bought for an average of about .30 cents per pound. 97% pure aluminum goes for 1700 a metric ton. No one is paying 40 dollars a pound for scrap aluminum. I may be wrong, but that looked like it was stainless steel, not aluminum.
hyphenman says
@StonedRanger No. 10
Oops, typo, that should be $.40 pound.
I thought it looked like stainless too, but the news reports all say aluminum. that much stainless would be a bear to lug in (and out).
Reginald Selkirk says
But wait, there’s more:
Another mysterious monolith has been discovered in Romania
mailliw says
And still more:
German police investigate after giant phallic ‘monument’ vanishes
The locals called it the Gipfelzipfel -- summit point, but Zipfel is also slang for penis.
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung this follows a series of thefts of summit crosses in the south west of Bavaria. The phallic monument also fell down once as cows liked to use it as a rubbing post.
Reginald Selkirk says
Romanian monolith is gone