On Friday afternoon, someone stole a flag, designed to honor fallen firefighters, from a Middletown fire engine.
By Saturday night, thousands of people across the state and across the country knew about the theft, thanks to a deftly written and slightly sarcastic Facebook post by the firefighters' union.
The post, from "the men and women of Middletown Professional Firefighters Local 1073" discusses their call for an oven fire on High Street, on the Wesleyan University campus, and says, "something is bugging us."
"We’re not sure why, but you must have really admired the sweet thin red line flag on Engine 2, because you climbed up on the tailboard and cut it off and stole it.... We have to assume you really liked the flag, or maybe you thought it might be funny or cool, you know, something for the ‘Gram or the Tik Tok.
We’re a little worried that you might have cut it down to “fight oppression” or whatever. If that was your motivator, you clearly don’t understand the meaning behind the thin red line."