BOSTON -- A Department of Conservation and Recreation worker was suspended for eight days for selling scrap metal from the same state labor yard where the historic metal trim from the Longfellow Bridge was stored before it was discovered missing.

The employee, whose name was not released, sold the scrap metal for $400 and used the money to throw a picnic for lifeguards and summer help, according to DCR spokeswoman Wendy Fox.

Fox said she did not know if the employee was being questioned concerning the theft of hundreds of feet of decorative, cast-iron trim that was taken off the Longfellow Bridge during repairs to the structure and stolen from the Stoneham, Mass., labor yard.

Officials said that about 2,347 linear feet of trim that was being stored at the yard was stolen sometime in the last three weeks. State officials planned to refurbish the trim and reattach it to the bridge.

Fox said the employee admitted he had taken and sold the scrap metal and made full restitution for the money he had received.