Town utility payment drop box broken into over weekend

The Skagit County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the latest in a string of break-ins, thefts and vandalism coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most recent target was the Town utility drop box on Washington Street near the post office. It was forcibly pried open last weekend.

“Customer utility payments appear to have been stolen,” Town Finance Director Maria DeGoede said in an email issued on Monday.

“It was pried open and was empty inside,” confirmed Town Public Works Director Brian Lease.

Town officials learned of the break-in Sunday morning.

“I was called by a citizen around 7:30 a.m. and alerted that this had happened,” Mayor Ramon Hayes told the Weekly News.

Hayes, in turn, called the sheriff’s office, which during the virus crisis has probed break-ins at La Conner Schools and the Town Public Works building, various acts of vandalism and graffiti tagging around town and an armed robbery mid-month at the Amaryllis store on First Street.

Lease examined the Town’s other payment drop boxes and found they had not been tampered with.

“They were all fine,” he said.

Town Administrator Scott Thomas said La Conner is not alone when it comes to municipal drop boxes being burgled or vandalized.

“We’re not the only community this has happened to,” he said. “Others, like Snohomish, have been hit.”

Lease, Hayes and Thomas said the Town will now likely consider digital options for receiving utility payments not sent through the mail or dropped off at Town Hall.

“We may have to turn to a new system,” Hayes said.

The drop box break-in here is reflective of times defined by the pandemic, he indicated.

“The person must have been desperate,” Hayes said, “thinking there might be cash in an envelope.”