By FireRescue1 Staff
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - According to The Secret List, Middleboro FD (MA) has confirmed that the stolen helmet of fallen Firefighter Mike Urban has been returned to the firefighter’s family.
The helmet was found in a backpack tonight laying outside a Middleboro firehouse. The helmet belonging to Urban, who died Jan. 7 after battling the lung cancer mesothelioma, was given to his widow at his funeral and entrusted to his nephew.
According to the Secret List, the helmet was stolen from Mike’s nephew’s car after it broke down in last week’s snowstorm following the funeral, forcing him to abandon it. The theft prompted local officials to offer a $1,000 reward for the return of the equipment.
“It’s everything to us, it’s a symbol of what we are. A piece of it is missing from Mike now,” one firefighter said following the theft.