FARMINGTON – Police have no suspects yet in a burglary at the Franklin Journal that occurred over the weekend, according to Farmington Detective Marc Bowering.
Four Macintosh computers and one Dell personal-computer tower were stolen between Friday night and Sunday evening.
On Sunday evening, the break-in was discovered by David Gustafson, the paper’s publisher, said Editor Bobbie Hanstein. Burglars pried open the back door to the building on Wilton Road and left the front door unlocked, she said Monday.
Hanstein said she does not expect to miss any printings of the twice-weekly paper.
Tuesday’s edition is usually sent to the printer Monday mornings. However, because of the Monday holiday, it was sent Friday evening. At least one of the remaining computers had a saved copy of that paper on it; the paper is typically saved on several computers. Six computers were left behind, and they were the newer ones, which baffles Hanstein.
The thief or thieves walked past the newer ones and took the older ones, she said. They also left the accompanying computer mice and keyboards. She suspects the older computers were easier to grab because they are singular components, as opposed to the newer ones with separate towers. The person or people could have also been interrupted, she theorized.
It was strange that nothing else was touched, including the company’s main drive, she said.
Hanstein said she has worried about something like this happening since the newspaper went fully electronic.
“It’s always kind of been a nightmare of mine,” she said. “It could be a real problem.”
Hanstein picked up one spare computer from the publisher’s Livermore Falls Advertiser office, and the paper is in the process of replacing the others. But for now, employees are scrambling to use the six that were left behind.
The damaged back door was replaced, and the publisher is hiring a security firm to watch the premises.
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