NewsCitrus, Hernando County

Actions

Burglars cut hole in library roof, take nothing but cause thousands of dollars in damage

Posted at 5:10 PM, Jul 30, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-30 18:26:24-04

HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — A break-in at the Hernando County library has shut it down for days while they work to clean up thousands of dollars in damage and irreplaceable books.

Burglars broke into the Hernando County library over the weekend by coming in through a hole they cut in the roof.

"I was amazed and dumbfounded at who would put this much effort into this," said library branch services coordinator Jessica Jeffers. 

The library's alarm went off just after 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

"We learned that they cut a hole in our roof and dropped down through the roof," said Jeffers. 

But it wasn’t just one hole. Whoever did it attempted to cut into several different spots on the roof before finally breaking through, leaving the roof and ceiling littered with holes and damage from the weekend’s heavy rain.

"It's a lot of damage and a lot of effort, as far as we could tell nothing was actually stolen," said Jeffers.

Although it seems nothing was taken, several shelves full of books were destroyed by water damage.

"We have a lot of genealogy books and Florida history books that are just really old texts that we can’t replace," said Jeffers.

The library is closed while county workers try to fix the roof. Meanwhile, people who use the library daily like Javon Seymour's family, are not happy.

"Idiots, idiots," said Seymour in response to finding out what the burglars did.

The Hernando County Sheriff's office is still looking for whoever is responsible.

"I just pray for them and hope they understand what they’re doing is wrong," said Seymour.