UPDATE: Man arrested for W’burg Senior Center break-in pleads not guilty

Workers and volunteers at the Williamsburg Senior Citizens Center spent much of Friday cleaning up a mess caused by burglars Thursday evening, including one who was captured in the act by the Williamsburg Police Department.

"The police department did a wonderful job," said Williamsburg Senior Citizens Center Director Virginia Hayes. "They said it was around 8:30 p.m. when they got the call on a cell phone reporting someone tried to break-in with a screwdriver. By the time I had gotten here at 9:15 p.m. they already had him in jail."

Williamsburg Police Officer Susan Petty charged David M. Rider, 34, of 202 South Third Street, with second-degree burglary and possession of burglary tools.

Shortly after 8:30 p.m. Thursday, 911 dispatchers received a report that someone was seen pulling on the doors of the center.

"When I got there, there was someone inside," Petty said. "He had garbage cans around him so I thought that maybe he worked there. When he saw me, he came to the door and said, ‘I work here. My name is David Rider.’"

When the man stepped outside, Petty observed a screwdriver in the man’s pocket and pry marks on the door, she said and immediately arrested Rider.

"He stated that his name was David Rider and he was breaking into the place. While cuffing him, I found a hammer tucked into the back of his pants," Petty wrote on his arrest citation.

Petty said that she couldn’t get back in immediately to search the building because the door had shut behind Rider and locked back so she transported him to the Whitley County Detention Center.

Hayes said that when she arrived at the center Thursday night it appeared that burglars tried to pry open all the outside doors with "a screwdriver or something."

"The glass on the office door had been smashed in, and they had gone through into the office," Hayes said. "They also tried to pry open the doors to the kitchen, but they hadn’t gained access to the kitchen, which was wonderful.

"We found that a garbage can from the library had been brought in, and they had taken the Wii game, the DVD player, my laptop computer and several other small electrical devices that they wrapped them up in garbage bags and put them down into this garbage can that we assume they were going to roll out with them," Hayes said. "They had just loaded up on our disaster bag, our tool boxes, any item that they could carry was loaded up in the middle of the floor ready to leave with them."

Hays said all the items that they thieves planned to take have been recovered, but that there was probably more than $1,000 worth of damage done to the building.

The center was closed all day Friday as center officials worked to clean up the mess.

"The building was in such bad shape that everything had to be disinfected," Hayes said Friday. "There was some blood on the door and the walls where they apparently cut themselves breaking in. We were closed today, but we expect to be back in full swing Monday but without an office door."

In the six years that the center has been at its current location off Second Street, Hayes said the only problem officials have had was a stolen glider off the front porch the second year they were there.

She admits that she was surprised to learn that someone had broken into the center given the amount of activity along the street.

Hayes said she was at the center until about 2 a.m. Friday securing the building.

Petty said that when she interviewed Rider at the jail, he implicated a second man in connection with the crime who wasn’t there when police arrived.

"He (Rider) said that he had run over the hill where the floodwall is and that is where they were going to hide all the stuff until they could get someone else to pick it up," she said.

Petty said that Rider was "really high" when he was arrested.

According to court documents, Rider refused to submit to a breathalyzer test at the detention center.

Detective Bobby Freeman, who is the lead investigator in the case, said police plan to pursue an arrest warrant to charge the second suspect that Rider implicated.

"Officer Susan Petty and Assistant Chief Rick Mosley did a good job on it," Freeman added.