At about 3 a.m. Thursday, surveillance cameras captured a white pickup truck pulling up to the two pillars at the east end of the Maplewood Richmond Heights football field.

That's when a perpetrator got out of the truck and removed two bronze plaques from the two pillars, the Maplewood Police Department said.

One was attached with bolts to the brick pillar, and the other covered an opening once used for selling tickets.

“We can only speculate,” said Brian Adkisson, MRH director of communications. “Our video cameras showed a truck pulling up and stopping right in front, and that’s really all we have because they were on the back side of these pillars and so you really can’t see people.”

He assumes the plaques were taken to be sold as scrap metal.

One plaque acknowledged sponsors who helped fund renovations to the track and athletic field, and the other listed administrators and Board of Education members at the time the renovations were made, Adkisson said.

“We would love to have them back, but those are the kinds of things that are hard to get,” Adkisson said.

Maplewood police say the truck then drove south on Martini Avenue toward Manchester Road.

Anyone with information regarding the theft is asked to call the Maplewood Police Department at 314-645-3000 or the anonymous tip line at 314-781-3733.