Burglars break into school twice, vandalize classrooms

BROOKS, Ore. – Burglars broke into a school in Brooks twice over the holiday weekend, vandalizing property and stealing items from classrooms and school lockers, Marion County Sheriff’s deputies said.

According to sheriff’s office spokesman Don Thomson, the first burglary at the Willamette Valley Christian School happened between Sunday evening and Monday morning.

Burglars forced their way into the building, vandalized classrooms, cut computer wires, broke into lockers and cut locks on storage buildings, Thomson said. The suspects stole 10-15 computer monitors, a 36’’ flat screen TV, several computers, a camera, a drum set and 3 guitars.

A staff member discovered the burglary. He arranged to have locks repaired and keys changed.

The school is a non-profit school with 145 students from preschool through 12th grade.

The second burglary happened between 6 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Thomson said the suspects used tools to break open a safe containing school records. They also took several cash drawers, ate food from the kitchen, cut more computer wiring and boxed up items to take with them. Some of those boxes were left behind.

The suspects also dumped files from the preschool classrooms on the floor and ate candy belonging to the students.

School office manager Carrie Reichelt estimated the loss from both burglaries to be over $15,000.

“We rely heavily on our computer system to help our students be successful. The damage to the wiring was considerable and will set us back,” said Reichelt. “The camera and stolen computer contained many of the photos and articles to be used in our yearbook, so we’d really like to recover that for the kids.”

Anyone with information about the burglaries is asked to call the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.