BETHEL — An intruder entered a water-covered, bulkhead at the back of town office at 3:53 a.m. Tuesday. Nothing appeared to be stolen from anywhere in The Cole Building which also houses the Bethel Citizen.

The town’s alarm company notified Oxford County dispatch when it received an alarm from an interior motion sensor in the town office. Deputy Errol Andrews responded and when he arrived, he said, the audible alarm was not sounding.

Finance Director Amy Hanscom said  there has never been a break in at Town Office.  She said when the alarm has been accidentally set off, it is quite loud and can be heard throughout the building. The rug outside Hanscom’s office had pellet dust from the basement.

Nothing appears to be missing at this time, said Deputy Andrews. However, he is waiting for Hanscom to do a thorough check before he files his police report.

On Tuesday morning having been called at 4 a.m. and then arriving to work at 7 :05 a.m., Hanscom was standing in her office holding a large Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. She said she had gotten nothing done. Asked if anything was taken she gestured toward full file cabinets nearby that would presumably take a long time to rifle through.

Footage from Northeast Bank was not helpful in the investigation.

A set of keys that read, 2018 VW Tiguan, black was found in the area near the bulkhead by Dee Nadeau, the Bethel Citizen advertising representative. Andrews said the keys were likely from a car that was burglarized a few days earlier in an unrelated incident.

The recent burglaries at Le Mu and another at Walker’s Farm Stand on East Bethel Road by an individual in a clown mask may or may not be related. Andrews couldn’t say.

He did say, “this town is grossly underestimating the amount of need for cameras everywhere … it is no coincidence that all the cops that I know have cameras at their residences or secondary businesses.”

Copy the Story Link