By Steven H. Bagley, Globe Correspondent | August 26, 2007
Police in several Western Massachusetts towns are investigating a series of break-ins last week at town halls and other public buildings.
The town halls of Leverett, Cummington, Conway, and Sunderland were targeted Thursday night, said Douglas Patterson, a Franklin County police dispatcher.
In Leverett, the thieves apparently were targeting the Town Hall safe and caused extensive damage in their attempts to open it, said Selectman Richard Brazeau.
They tried to get into the back of the safe by going through an adjacent bathroom, Brazeau said. But after tearing through the bathroom's walls, they could not get through the concrete shielding the safe.
"It amazes me that nobody heard," he said. "It happened after 10 p.m."
Brazeau noted that the town's post office was also vandalized the same night. He said he believed that incident and the vandalism of a church three weeks ago were also related to the burglaries.
In Cummington, Selectman Chairman Russell L. Sears III said the damage was not discovered until yesterday morning. The thieves broke into every office in Town Hall, smashing doors and door frames, he said, and "quite a few filing cabinets were ruined."
Despite the damage, Sears said, the only money missing was from the dog license fund -- $50 to $70.
"I'm sure all the robberies were connected, but I don't know why we were on the list," Sears said.
Thomas Fydenkevez, a selectman in Sunderland, said the burglars who ransacked his community's Town Hall "took papers out, jimmied the locks on the desks. I think what they were looking for was cash."
The burglary "happened out of the blue. I don't know if we've ever thought of someone breaking into Town Hall," he said, noting that the town library was also hit.
"Whatever municipal buildings were available, they were just going through," he said.
Officials in Conway didn't immediately have a comment.
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