The East Coulee School Museum was closed last Sunday to clean up after a break-and-enter and vandalism overnight.
Cindy Clark, executive director of the East Coulee School Museum, tells the Mail sometime in the late hours of Saturday, August 17 or the early hours of Sunday, August 18, culprit(s) broke into the institution. It appears they gained access through the window. It appears to her it may be young people.
“There were some beer cans, and they stole some of the consigned jewellery and things from the gift shop,” said Clark. “They pushed around some things and knocked some things over.”
The damages also included a liquid poured into the carpet in the gift shop, a bed in the miner’s room was broken, as well as a window.
“When I look at all the damage they could have done, they didn’t,” said Clark.
“Inside, when I think of all the artifacts they could have damaged, or they could have spray painted, but they didn’t do anything like that, so it doesn’t look like a targeted vandalism type of thing.”
“It appeared to me that maybe some tourists were camping around East Coulee and the kids were hanging out and fooling around.”
The Drumheller RCMP came out to assess and gather evidence from the crime scene and so far it is still under investigation. The museum was back open on Monday.
“It’s disappointing in the sense that somebody did that, but as far as loss the museum or damages to the museum it was very minimal. It is just heartbreaking that they could do something like this,” she said.
The afternoon before the break-in, staff also noticed the strap used during history school was missing from the classroom, which was also disappointing.
“Maybe they got scared off by our ghosts, I hope so,” Clark chuckles.
