Police are investigating after several vehicles were broken into at Branford Fire Headquarters early Monday morning.
Branford police say a town vehicle and two personal vehicles belonging to members of the Branford Fire Department were damaged and broken into around 5:30 a.m. Monday. The vehicles were parked at Branford Fire Headquarters on North Main Street.
Surveillance video from the side of the building shows the vandals driving into the parking lot, stopping beside one of the targeted vehicles, looking in windows and eventually smashing them open.
“Just right out in the open without a care,” said Branford Fire Chief Tom Mahoney. “[It’s] almost like they’re getting more brazen, they have no fear. We watched on the camera how they spent a good 10 minutes walking around like there’s nothing to worry about, not a care in the world, and the parking lot here is well lit and very visible to Route 1.”
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Mahoney said the damaged vehicles were discovered a short time later, just before 6 a.m.
“Some of our new police recruits were coming to pick up a vehicle here, it was one the of the vehicles broken into. They noticed the window was broken. We discovered two of our members’ vehicles also had windows smashed out,” he added.
Nothing of value was stolen, but Mahoney said the vandals caused some damage that’s more than just a broken window.
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“In the act of going through them, they also scratched up and damaged a lot of the paint on one of the vehicles,” Mahoney said. “Two of our young paramedics work very hard to be able to afford a vehicle, and to have that happen is really just disappointing.”
While police are investigating, the department is exploring ways to keep the fire department’s parking lot safer.
“We’re taking some steps to ensure we have a more secure environment for our people. It’s just disappointing that we have to do that,” added Mahoney. “They were here serving their community, doing what they do, and just came out to find out that they were victims of a crime. It’s disappointing.”
