Officials at City Hall made an alarming discovering when they arrived at work this morning to garbage scattered across the floor after an apparent break-in.
“The double-doors on the east part of the building by the parking lot were forced in,” said Oxford Police Department detective Chris Case. “They must have jiggled it and messed with it enough that the lock broke off the wood.”
After gaining entry into the building, the intruders threw a recycling can down the hall, spilling cans and bottles across the ground. It was the first break-in at City Hall in three years and luckily for officials, nothing significant has been reported missing.
“We haven’t noticed anything significant gone or have anything that’s missed at this time,” said Mayor Pat Patterson. “It was probably just a couple of kids that once they realized what they’d done, they hauled it out of there.”
Each night, City Hall is locked down and secured by OPD. The building was secured and vacated around 6:30 p.m. last night following the Board of Aldermen meeting.
Patterson said there will be improvements made to install security cameras and alarms to protect the government building from future vandalism or burglaries. In the meantime, Case said OPD will provide additional security to the premises and surrounding area.
“We will have extra patrol and extra officers on the Square to walk it more and to physically check all the doors to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Michael Quirk is a HottyToddy.com staff reporter and can be reached at michael.quirk@hottytoddy.com.
