The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - The re- cent Thanksgiving holiday appeared to have been the perfect timing for burglars to target locations on Main Street.

Between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25, three burglaries and one attempted burglary were reported to the Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office.

All of the burglaries called in were from locations on Main Street, according to information from the sheriff's office.

In the recent events, burglars made off with a laptop computer, digital projector and a guitar. No one has yet been arrested in connection to the recent Waitsburg burglaries.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, Nov. 29, Captain Barry Blackman said the sheriff's of- fice received a call about a suspicious vehicle. When a deputy arrived on scene, he noticed a door open to at Waitsburg High School about 3:35 a.m. The deputy called for backup, Black- man said, and once the building was cleared it was apparent the high school had been ransacked with items strewn about.

Nothing was reported stolen, Blackman said, and it appeared to just be malicious mischief. There are no suspects yet related to the high school break in.

"It's kind of a coun- ty-wide issue," said Un- dersheriff Edward Freyer with the sheriff's office. "(Waitsburg is) not exclu- sive to a rash of burglaries."

Freyer said the office only has one detective on staff who can work on these cases and added that person has made investigating the burglaries the "utmost pri- ority." He said he doesn't know if all of the burglaries countywide are being committed by the same group of people. But, he does believe the burglaries are linked in some way.

"We're working it hard," he said. "We'll prevail sooner or later."

The most recent success the office had was when last week it arrested youths connected to burglaries in the Burbank area, Freyer said.

The office is working to collect as much evidence as possible at crime scenes, including shoe prints and finger prints, to help estab- lish some leads. All of this evidence is then examined by the detective, he said.

"We're analyzing the trends of these burglar- ies, but we're so thin," he added.

The office only has three patrol officers per shift for the whole county, Freyer said. It's hard to target patrols in places like Waits- burg because that leaves a void in police presence in another area of the county.

" I'm really worried about it," said Waitsburg Mayor Walt Gobel of the burglaries.

Gobel said Sheriff John Turner had a team meeting recently to discuss the bur- glaries in Waitsburg.

"If I know Turner, he has a great concern and he'll do what it takes to get it done," Gobel said.

Even with his faith in lo- cal law enforcement, Gobel said he has modified his habits to prevent burglaries at his home. He used to not lock his doors when stepping out for a quick errand in town and now he always locks up, he said. Also, he and his neighbors are keep- ing a better lookout.

"Lock up and get the neighbors together to keep an eye on each other's place," he said. "And don't get in- volved. Just call the sheriff."

Because the increase in the number of burglaries in Walla Walla County is following a national trend, Freyer said he doesn't be- lieve the communities in the county will see a decrease until the burglar is caught.

" I'm very optimistic we'll do that," he said. "Hang tight and wish us a little luck."

He said the Waitsburg community needs to continue to be aware of and report suspicious vehicles and activities to the sheriff's office.