Scroll to the bottom of this story to get the updated report on the portable classroom break-ins!
Kris and Bricia had a busy night handling shot-out windows and back-to-back portable classroom break-ins in Washington last night.
Kris was monitoring her accounts last night just before midnight when she received an alarm on the courtyard doors of an elementary school in King County. She dispatched a school guard service to investigate. She then received another alarm and began hearing movement, followed by loud bangs and alarms on more doors. She notified the guard of the situation, but he was still en route. Kris dispatched the King County Sheriff. Two people were arrested after officers arrived and found the school windows shot out by BB guns and the doors damaged. There was also reportedly an attempted fire in the school.
Modular, temporary, portable– whatever you call it, it needs security.
A few hours later at 1:30, Kris received an alarm at a portable classroom at a school in Marysville. She could hear clattering noises and shuffling and dispatched Marysville PD. Two people were apprehended. The suspects had removed the window from the classroom to gain entry.
At 5:30 this morning, Kris had gone home and Bricia was on duty. She received an audio activation from loud banging on another portable classroom at the same school in Marysville. She heard voices and more banging and dispatched Marysville PD. She called the school responders again, who may still have been awake from the earlier incident at the school. Another two people were apprehended.
Our Puget Sound Schools Customer Service Representative, Sarah Bailey, did some digging to find out what really happened with the back-to-back break-ins and found out that it was quite the elaborate plan! Here’s her update:
On Monday (May 24), the janitors at the middle school cleaned the carpets in the portables and opened all the windows to let them air out. While the carpets were drying, the custodians left and four kids wandered in. The kids took two projectors, but must have got spooked while they were running away because they dropped the projectors. Two neighborhood walkers found the projectors and called the police who then notified the school to close the windows. The kids ran home, began partying and later fell asleep. Around 1 AM two of the kids woke up, went to the school and removed the window in one of the portables, triggering Kris’ dispatch. The kids were caught with five laptops and some basketball uniforms and were sent to a juvenile detainment center. Around 6 AM the next two kids woke up, remembered what the plan was, went to the school and broke out the window in another portable to steal more items (Bricia’s dispatch). They were caught but did not have anything on their persons. They still got a ride to the juvenile detainment center to meet up with their friends.
If you ever wonder why it sometimes takes us a little while to get a full report on our apprehensions, it’s because we have customer service representatives following up with each client after they experience a break-in to determine what happened. When they come back with stories like these, it makes us proud to know that the only things standing between a successful crime and an arrest were our system and operators!