Does anyone have diving equipment to borrow or any information about the June 9th I-10 bridge crash?

I have very strong reasons to believe that a package I ordered is at the bottom of the Mobile Bay. On May 15th of this year I placed an order on AbeBooks for an extremely rare book which contained a number of original writings by Nicolaus Copernicus. I forget what shipping option I chose, but I believe the timeline was something like 3-4 weeks. I was eager to get it, so I watched the tracking updates like a hawk. It seemed to be making a weird roundabout trip around the states, going from the East Coast to the West Coast and then back to the East Coast (I live in Florida). On June 8th, the package apparently had made it to my neck of the woods (relatively speaking), as according to the tracking, at 3:44am that morning it departed from a facility in Birmingham.

That’s the last update I ever received.

By July I knew it wasn’t coming, so I contacted the seller, who didn’t answer. So I contacted AbeBooks, who told me there was nothing they could do as the seller’s liability ended after the package was shipped. FedEx was equally unhelpful when I called their agents. I was really bummed, but eventually I came to accept that either I was scammed… or it was aliens. I had already bought a display case made out of tiger bone to house my tome in, which I had to return. After a few weeks I forgot about the whole affair and moved on.

Well now my interest has been resparked as I got my workplace crush in Secret Santa and I realized that a work by Copernicus would actually be the perfect gift for her. She is Polish like Copernicus was, and loves science. I went back to my AbeBooks history to check out the book I had never received to see if there were any related rare works on there. Nothing caught my eye, but I did get to reconsidering the whole situation: I realized that if there was a tracking history, I may not have been scammed— the seller clearly did send out SOMETHING. And I don’t believe in Aliens. So the package has to be somewhere in or around Alabama.

I started researching possible routes the truck could have taken and mapped out a couple different ones. I then combed through traffic reports from after June 7th along those routes and went down some weird rabbit holes but eventually found THIS: a news story about a truck crash on the I-10 bayway bridge on JUNE 9TH: 2 days after the truck apparently left Birmingham.

I am convinced that the truck driver must have either been one of the pictured trucks that crashed or perhaps a third truck that fell off the side of the bridge and was not accounted for. I’ve called the news station and the police for more information but was stonewalled by both. I even tried messaging the person with photo credits in the article— no luck either. I also contacted the facility that I believe the truck driver left from and pretended to be a higher-up in FedEx, and all they could tell me was that they had a record that a truck did indeed leave at that time.

I am ready to risk it all for this lost book. I feel like I’m in a National Treasure movie or something. If I’m right about this truck crash, I could recover what I’m rightfully owed and also earn my own weird place in the history of Copernicus collecting. Not to mention, I’d finally be able to put an end to this whole saga.

I will be driving over to Mobile tomorrow morning to talk to the Police in person— which I don’t expect to go anywhere— and to investigate the crash site for myself. This brings me to my first ask. If anyone has information about the crash, (especially looking for eyewitness accounts), please PM me so we can meet up when I’m in town— I can buy you lunch in exchange for hearing your story.

My second big ask: I will be renting a boat for the investigation, but I was supposed to be getting diving equipment from a cousin who is a mariner. Unfortunately, he had a death in the family and will not be available. So I really need someone to help me out. I would be willing to pay someone a little bit to borrow their stuff and, if possible, have you accompany me.

If I do find the book I’m looking for, I will be going to the media to tell my story and I will of course give credit by name to everyone who helped me along the way. So if you can think of any other ways to contribute and have the capacity to do so, please reach out.

Thanks Mobile and I will see you very soon!