Washington police probing burglary at county records storage office
City police were called before 9 a.m. Monday to a break-in at an office at the Washington County records storage building at 20 S. Main St., Washington, across from the courthouse.
Terry Belcher, the clerk who has managed records for the past 11 years, said the break-in likely occurred early Monday morning after he spoke to a person who saw “stuff stacked up outside the building.
“It’s hard to believe, right on Main Street,” he said.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Washington County records clerk Terry Belcher’s office was broken into Monday morning at the county storage building across Main Street from the courthouse.
The witness was not suspicious of the activity, presumably because boxes and files are routinely removed from the building.
Belcher said county computers and his small refrigerator and microwave oven were among the items stolen.
Papers were strewn on the floor of the office, but Belcher said county records appeared to have been untouched.
Since 2003, the county has been renting storage space in the building that once housed Lang’s fashion store and Stack’s cafeteria. The elections office stores touch-screen voting machines in the basement.
Belcher said the entrance door from South Main Street seemed to have been forced open and then forced closed. He unlocked and did not realize anything thing was amiss until he saw that his office was in disarray.
A Washington police detective was expected to follow up with the investigation that uniformed officers began.