FBI hunts for Hoffa; town hunts for profits
DETROIT – It only took a few hours for a 75,000-pound excavator to make toothpicks of a large wooden horse barn on the Hidden Dreams Farm in Milford Township, Mich., on Wednesday, as 50 federal agents combed the area searching for the remains of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
So far, nothing has been found, and things are “business as usual,” according to FBI spokeswoman Dawn Clenney.
Federal officials want to search beneath the barn for any clues, so the barn had to be demolished. The barn’s concrete floor will now be carefully ripped apart.
Cadaver-sniffing dogs, anthropologists, archaeologists, ground-penetrating radar and other high-tech equipment – along with agents with shovels in hand – will be used to sift through the area, officials said.
About 5 p.m. Wednesday, a pile of wooden debris sat where the 4,700-square-foot barn once stood. A handful of FBI agents in navy blue polo shirts stood watch nearby – one leaning on a yellow shovel.
A few curious onlookers and neighbors watched from a distance.
Bernadette Kimbrough, 42, leaned against a nearby wooden fence and took pictures with her cell phone.
“I was really curious about the Hoffa search,” said Kimbrough, a hairdresser at a Milford salon. “It’s been 31 years since he went missing. I have seen pictures of him, but I wanted to see this – the helicopters and the barn” and the media circus it has attracted to the small town in western Oakland County, Mich.
And what’s a circus without souvenirs? Downtown Milford is full of them.
There’s the Hoffa steak salad for $12.95 at Lu & Ruby’s Bar and Grill. They have sold 300 since Friday. The salad includes a 12-ounce New York strip steak, cut up and buried in a field of greens; topped with edible flowers and mushrooms, meant to symbolize a grassy field like the one authorities are searching now.
Starting today, the owner of Lu & Ruby’s said he planned to sell T-shirts that read “Milford: A Great Place to Meet Your Friends” on the front and “And Bury Your Enemies” on the back above a black-and-white image of Jimmy Hoffa.
Pam Polcyn, a substitute teacher at Milford High School, bought five T-shirts from the Main Street Art store that read: “Milford Digs Hoffa, Do You?” on the front.
“It’s that morbid humor that everyone loves,” she said.
All of the downtown shops plan to stay open until 8 p.m. today – they usually close at 6 p.m. – to try to sell something related to Jimmy Hoffa.
Many shoppers and business owners said they doubt authorities will find Hoffa in their hamlet. But that’s not the point, they said.
“Some people never knew where Milford was, and now we are on the map for the country to see,” said Barb Moorhead, owner of Main Street Art. “The attention will die off, but we’re going to enjoy it while it’s here.”