FINLEY — Cardboard and packing tape covers a gap in the Finley Post Office front window where a vandal broke it, according to officials.
The Lake County Sheriff”s Office is investigating the incident, Sheriff Rodney Mitchell confirmed Tuesday. He said a deputy responded approximately 10 minutes after the vandalism was reported Sunday morning.
“Initially, the report came in to dispatch that a window was broken out and trash was thrown all over the post office,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell continued, “This appears to be malicious mischief. There is no indication of forced entry to either the office area of the post office or to any of the mail boxes.”
The deputy who responded believed the vandal used a trash can to break the window. No one was arrested, he said.
Postmaster Cindy Turner said any crime committed at a post office is a federal offense. Nothing appeared to have been stolen, she said, but a recycling bin containing primarily Hometown Shopper booklets and other mail inserts was dumped out on the floor.
“Hopefully people wouldn”t put sensitive information in there,” Turner said.
Turner said the post office is left unlocked to allow people going home after hours to come in and get their mail. The incident Sunday was the second vandalism she”s seen in her approximately three years as postmaster at the Finley Post Office.
Turner said the entire front window, approximately six feet high by 10 feet wide, will need to be replaced. Owner Brad Litchfield said he is getting an estimate of the cost to replace the window with double-paned glass this week, and said he hoped to have the new window installed “as quickly as possible.”
“Unfortunately, when people don”t get what they want in the mail, or get something they didn”t want, they tend to take it out on the post office. In fact, we”ve had our windows broken before. Last month somebody came in and stole one of our office rugs. I hope we don”t have to lock the lobby up, because this is a rural community. They usually only lock lobbies in larger cities where the vandalism is bad,” Turner said.
Mitchell said if anyone who uses the post office finds something missing from their mailbox, they should notify his office. The number for the sheriff”s administrative office is 262-4200.
“If anyone has any information about who is responsible, we would like to know that, too,” Mitchell said.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
