Bigfork teen arrested for school burglary
SCOTT SHINDLEDECKER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 3 months AGO
A Bigfork teen was arrested for burglarizing a Kalispell elementary school.
Andrew Wade Francisco, 18, was charged with burglary and is lodged in the Flathead County Detention Center on $5,000 bail.
He is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25 in Flathead County District Court. Francisco faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in the Montana State Prison.
According to charging documents, a principal at Russell Elementary School called the Kalispell Police Department Sept. 22 to report an intruder. A school custodian confronted the man and he ran off.
When the officer spoke to the custodian, he reported a missing key and the principal believed it’s how the intruder got into the school. After watching video surveillance, the officer saw a man use a key to enter several classrooms and had some items in his possession.
The officer spoke with a teacher who found a key on her desk and it turned out to be a master key. The officer sent several still images from video surveillance to fellow officers and one identified the man as Francisco.
A former school principal also spoke with the officer and reported a former teacher had encountered a random stranger in the school during the summer. When she asked him his name, he said “Andrew.”
The former teacher identified the man as Francisco after seeing a photo lineup.
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