PLACER COUNTY, Calif. — Deputies in Placer County are trying to track down whomever stole several call box have set up on Foresthill Bridge in Auburn, which are used to connect to a suicide hotline.
Foresthill Bridge has been vandalized before, but call boxes on the bridge, which is known as a place people have tragically taken their own lives, have never been stolen.
Back in 2018, a volunteer group called "Notes of Hope: Suicide Prevention" started tying sticky notes with positive messages scribbled on them to the bridge, hoping they would help people considering suicide.
To date, the group says they have helped keep 37 people from jumping off of the bridge.
"The crisis line is supposed to help you," said the volunteer group's founder Brittney Hendricks. "You open up the box and there's no phone there, I'm going to think that this is a sign that I should continue doing what I came here to do."
Hendricks is urging the person or people behind the vandalism to stop.
"We're tired of the vandalism. I understand that maybe you don't agree with the notes or you don’t support suicide prevention," Hendricks said, "but if that was your loved one out there contemplating jumping, and you found out that you vandalized the notes, vandalized the phones and you didn't save them, you would feel terrible."
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office asks anyone who knows anything about the missing call boxes to call them at (530) 889-7830.
Zach Fuentes is a reporter for ABC10 covering news in Placer County. Continue the conversation on with Zach on Facebook.
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