Members of the business community in Davidson headed back to work last Tuesday after enjoying a relaxing August holiday only to find that thieves had remained hard at work over the long weekend.
Gary Edom, administrator with the Town of Davidson, said three town buildings make up half of the six total businesses in town that suffered a break-in. He said the town hall, doctor’s office and dental/optometrist office were all broken into, but no equipment in the buildings, including a few laptops in the dentist’s office, was stolen.
“The (lock) was wrecked on the dentist’s office and the two interior locks into the optometrist’s rooms are both wrecked,” said Edom. “They broke into the dispensary and examination room (in the doctor’s office).”
Edom said there are no marks on both the front and back doors of the town hall and all were locked when town staff came to work Tuesday morning, but they know burglars were in the building over the weekend because the door frame to the recreation director’s office is damaged.
“In Trevor (Ouellette’s) office they pried the casing away from the jam and they kicked the door a couple times,” he said, adding it doesn’t appear that thieves managed to enter the room. “It’s just a matter of tightening things up again. They didn’t really wreck it.”
A member of the Craik detachment of the RCMP said Davidson is the only town in the area that reported break-ins after the long weekend and nothing appears to have been stolen in two of the instances with only cash missing in the other four. He said the crooks entered the buildings sometime between early Sunday morning and early Monday morning.
“In some instances the businesses had their door unlocked, so they were able to walk in,” said the officer, noting there were no alarms or cameras in any of the businesses affected. “In the other places they either damaged the back door or they snapped the lock on the front door.”
The Davidson Leader office was one of the businesses that was broken into over the August long weekend. The burglars snapped the lock on the front door in half and also attempted to pry their way in through the back door. It is believed that the building was entered, but nothing appeared to be out of place Tuesday morning and no equipment such as cameras and computers was stolen.
The Craik RCMP officer said long weekends in the summer months are an easy time for thieves to target businesses because most people head off to the lake or a cottage during this time. He said it is important that business owners take precautions such as having alarms or security cameras installed on their property for this reason.
To read more please see the August 11 print edition of The Davidson Leader.