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Binoculars Missing No More, Will Return

SCRANTON — The mystery of the missing binoculars is solved. It turns out the swiped set of binoculars at the Scranton lookout was all just a big misunders...

SCRANTON -- The mystery of the missing binoculars is solved. It turns out the swiped set of binoculars at the Scranton lookout was all just a big misunderstanding and led to a cleanup of the site.

The binoculars are on their way back and they were not stolen, as police originally thought.

The binoculars that were standing at the lookout only two weeks ago were mistakenly repossessed. It's a complicated story that led to a total cleanup of the lookout.

The Scranton lookout looked different 24 hours after Newswatch 16 started looking into a big hole left at the lookout site on Route 307.

The binoculars, known as tower viewers, were missing but they've been found and it's not as bad as officials originally thought.

scranton lookout

The Architectural Heritage Association in Scranton leases them from a company in Connecticut called Tower Optical. An employee there called it all a "colossal mix-up."

The treasurer of the Architectural Heritage Association said the mix-up meant the bill was never paid.

Tower Optical tried to notify the association it was coming to repossess the binoculars two weeks ago but the association never got the message.

Now, it will take another two weeks or so for the piece to return.

The missing binoculars caused city officials to take a closer look at the condition of the Scranton lookout. The DPW cleaned up all the trash.

"Quite a difference, very clean. It was like a garbage dump a couple of days ago," said Bob Dranshak of Dunmore.

On a nice day, the lookout is a popular place for people from Scranton and elsewhere to take in the view and relax. Folks said a cleaner lookout makes the view a whole lot nicer.

"People, like if they come to Scranton and come here, I guess it looks cleaner so they want to come and get the view and stuff so that's good," said Madeline Grant of Scranton.

The lookout has been cleaned up and the missing binocular problem has been cleared up.

Employees at the company in Connecticut say they plan to return the binoculars in a few weeks.

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