Ladyville high school hit by thieves
Sometime after one this morning, thieves broke into Ladyville Technical High School. This evening police were at the scene collecting evidence that may lead them to the criminals. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
At this time, the police do not have any suspects, but strongly believe that whoever broke into Ladyville Technical High was very familiar with the school.
Cherrymae Sutherland, Principal, Ladyville Technical High
“They entered through one of the windows of the principal’s office and then they were able to open the door from there and get through the entire office, via the secretary’s office, the clerk’s office and the technician’s office.”
Jacqueline Woods
“From there they went over the cafeteria?”
Cherrymae Sutherland
“Apparently, they left there…I don’t know which one was first, in the cafeteria where they broke into the storeroom. And they had a feast because they were eating whatever was available, eating and drinking. They also broke into one of the staff rooms where they took out the louvers one at a time, because that had them nicely stacked on the ground.”
The burglars broke into three buildings and stole five thousand dollars worth of cash and goods.
Cherrymae Sutherland
“They checked every drawer, all the filing cabinets, to see what they were looking for, but they went mostly with money, about four thousand dollars and these were from school fees that we were collecting. They took the VCR, the radio, more or less what we have seen so far. They tried to enter the back door, because when we checked, we found a piece of the screwdriver they were using. Apparently it broke in the lock. So we took it out when we were changing the lock. It’s a new door we’re looking at, even the cafeteria, because they actually stamped the door because where the lock is, a piece of the door frame is left in the lock.”
Jacqueline Woods
“How will this affect the institution?”
Cherrymae Sutherland
“Terribly because you’re making progress and you see where you’re going and then when you do things like this you’re looking at added expense, because now it means that I have to look into putting in burglar bars around the entire office. And right now we are in no man’s land because we’re far from the road and we don’t have any security anywhere, and also it’s only one watchman we have on duty.”
That watchman was at his workplace at time of the break in but he told school officials that he did not hear anything. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.
The last time Ladyville Technical High School was broken into was in March of 2001.
