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Delta throwback: Break-in at new municipal hall

A ventilation window was forced open to gain entry
Sandor Gyarmati
Sandor Gyarmati
delta-municipal-hall-robbery-1969
Determined thieves chopped and hammered their way into the new municipal hall vault. Pictured from left: Delta Det. Al Stinson, municipal treasurer Glen Thompson and Det. Ted Thiessen.Delta Optimist file

Let’s head back to the 1969 pages of the Delta Optimist when it didn’t take the city’s new multi-million dollar municipal hall to be hit by thieves.

Over a weekend in mid-June, thieves jimmied through a ventilation window on the north side of the building, then the rear wall of the first floor vault was hammered through.

Police Chief Merv Smith said the safe inside was tipped over and believed to have been hammered open.

Sledge hammering through the concrete block wall into the vault only took a few minutes, he said.

“It looked like a professional job,” added Smith.

Municipal accountant Tom Carr opened the vault on the morning of Monday, June 16th to find the gaping hole in the wall, the overturned and opened safe and papers scattered all over the floor. An axe was also lying on the floor.

Smith also said the safe robbery was the “first in Delta for a long time.”

The culprits made off with about $600.