Thursday, April 10, 2008

New Castle (NH) Historical Society Burgled

Persons unknown broke into the New Castle Historical Society (NH) over the weekend, according to media reports. Police chief James Murray told the press "The building was forcibly entered. We're not sure exactly when, but think it must have been within the last couple of days." He called the robbery "an incident of tragic proportions to the people of the Historical Society and the town."

Society president Rodney Rowland is compiling a list of the stolen items. He said "Basically, they took any three-dimensional object they could carry away." Boxes of historic maps and postcards are believed to have been among the items stolen, as well as artifacts from the historic Wentworth Hotel and from New Castle's Fort Stark.

The robbers left some fairly evident traces of themselves behind: Rowland told the media "they bled all over the place. There's blood in every exhibit case, on the windowsill and residue in the bathroom. A lot of our original postcards have drops of blood on them."

A full list of the stolen items will be released as soon as possible, and Crime Stoppers has issued at $2,000 reward for any information related to the thefts.