The man said he was Capt. William Clark and that he was in charge of the situation on the day of the collapse, Mayor Jewell Horne told KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City on Tuesday.
The man, who was wearing green Army-style fatigues and a beret, briefly took possession of a briefcase belonging to Army Capt. Andrew Clements and looked through it before Horne asked that it be returned, Horne told KOCO. It was not known how the man got near the accident site. Army officials could not be reached late Tuesday to verify the man's identity.
Clements, 35, of Woodbridge, Va., was among the 14 people killed May 26 when a barge hit the Interstate 40 bridge, collapsing it into the Arkansas River.
It is not known if anything was taken from the briefcase. The man seemed to know information about Clements before his body was recovered from the river, Horne said.
The man hasn't been seen in the area since the day after the collapse, the station reported. Horne said she told the man to leave after noticing discrepancies in his story.
Authorities are investigating whether the man possibly wrote bogus checks and stayed at a hotel in Van Buren, Ark., free under the auspices of taking part in the rescue operation, the television station reported.
On the surface that looks good -- but what does this mean? Did she never break eye contact and watch this man's every move or in the course of envents was the mayor otherwise occupied (On the phone) and giving orders to her subordiates allowing yon pilferer the oportunity to remove a few documents -- here and there
Have you ever had a stack of water logged documents to go through? I have, and let me give you a hint they don't shuffle.
If they were in the river were the papers soaking wet if so he would have had to carefully seperate and lay out each page one at a time to see what was in the wet heap.
A quick look at wet papers could easily take 15 - 20 minutes -- during which time a few documents could easily disappear
In other words I think we need more info before giving this guy the no foul no harm thumbs up.