No motive found for break-ins at Flathead High School, Elrod

Police have arrested a Kalispell man on suspicion of burglary and vandalism after Elrod Elementary School and Flathead High School were broken into last weekend.

Colin Timm, 28, is being held for violating the terms of his probation pending formal burglary charges from the Flathead County Attorney's Office, according to the Kalispell Police Department.

Investigators have interviewed two other men in connection with the break-ins, but their names are being withheld until warrants are issued for their arrests.

Two of the three suspects, including Timm, have had prior contact with law enforcement, said Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset.

There appears to be no motive behind the break-ins, which occurred during the early morning hours of Sept. 12, beyond wanton destruction.

"These were random acts of criminal activity," Nasset said.

At both schools, the alleged vandals did the most damage to windows, which they broke to get into the buildings, and glass on display cases.

Investigators say the trio also rifled through student lockers, vandalized vending machines, and broke cases holding fire suppression equipment.

Officers spent hours reviewing surveillance footage of the crime, leading to the identification of one of the suspects. The other two men were identified after the search of a Concord Lane residence.

Elrod doesn't have security cameras, but Flathead does. Principal Peter Fusaro said the suspects were caught on video ripping open lockers and pulling out the contents.

They also broke into the drafting classroom, broke a stereo and threw chairs around lecture rooms and classrooms. The vandals discharged fire extinguishers at both schools.

"It was a senseless act," Fusaro said. "The whole purpose looked like it was to reap destruction."

He estimated the damage at a couple thousand dollars but said he didn't yet have an official estimate.

The burglars didn't appear to have broken in with the intention of stealing items, Fusaro said. A few students may have lost items from lockers.

"Basically they went through the school trying to cause as much damage as possible," he said.

The same seemed to be true at Elrod, Principal Jeff Hornby said. Aside from broken glass in a window and display case, most of the damage there came from four discharged fire extinguishers, which coated the L-shaped school from end to end with foam.

"There was a good quarter inch of powder on everything from the far west end of the building to the main office and the far south end," Hornby said. "Everything in the hall was covered."

That damage was easily, albeit time-consuming, to fix, he said. Hornby estimated he, two custodians and a few volunteers spent 36 hours cleaning the school over the weekend.

The damage was discovered when students arrived Saturday to play on the Elrod playground, he said. Parents noticed damage to a window and called police.

At about the same time, a custodian arrived to pick up something he'd left the day before. When police arrived, the custodian accompanied them through the building and assessed the damage. Then he called Hornby and the cleanup began.

"We got it pretty close to the condition it was before," Hornby said. "Really, if we hadn't said anything, the staff and students probably wouldn't have noticed much."

The mess at Flathead was discovered when staff arrived early Saturday morning to open the gym for the day's sporting events, Fusaro said. The school had been cleaned by the time classes started Monday morning.