ST. LOUIS – A stainless-steel tank worth tens of thousands of dollars was stolen Tuesday from a north St. Louis pipe fabrication and installation business.

“You can see the bent pipes here. A guy just hooked a chain up to his car and just started going,” George Marsh, owner of Western Blow Pipe, said. “Over here we had our tank. Maybe you can see some dirt there, that’s all it is where it’s been stolen from. That’s our metal dumpster. They’ll go in there and dig stuff out and just throw it in a trailer and leave.”

You can see the exact moment the tank was stolen in surveillance video.

“It was a jacked tank, that’s all I can say. No top, no bottom. It was a partial of a job,” Marsh said, adding that the expensive tanks are used for food processing.

Surveillance cameras captured a red pickup truck take off with a different tank back in January. Police said the investigation is ongoing.

“Since then, still no detective, still can’t get a response if anyone is even going to take it seriously and look into it,” Marsh said. “Since then, we’ve been robbed about six to eight times. Small stuff; annoying, but not life changing.”

Marsh wants to see an increase in police patrolling the area overnight to help prevent more thefts. He hopes police will make an arrest.

“At some point in time, losing a hundred thousand dollars a month is not sustainable in this business,” he said. “If it doesn’t get taken seriously, we have to seriously think about either closing the doors or moving out of town.”