QUESTION: Was the old Gibsonville Elementary School burglarized last week?
ANSWER: It wasn’t the sound of burglary but some late-night work that woke the old school’s neighboring residents and brought out the town’s police force in the early hours last Thursday.
Around midnight, police chief Ron Parrish told The Alamance News this week, Gibsonville’s police department received a call about what he termed “suspicious conditions,” which constituted the sound of metal pipes being sawed in the old building’s boiler room.
Upon questioning the two men, the police learned that they had been given permission by the building’s owners, Alireza “Alex” Shahrak and Lily Yang Shahrak, to carry out their work of removing material from inside the pipes — apparently even at midnight. Part of the men’s reasoning for working so late, Parrish explained, had been that the building, which has remained vacant for several years and lacks air conditioning, was cooler in the evening.
The agreement struck between the men and the school’s owners was ultimately cancelled by the town’s code of ordinances, which prohibit loud work, like sawing metal, during the night.
Additionally, while one of the men was let off with only a warning, officers soon found that the other had a warrant out for his arrest in Pasquotank County, located in the far northeast corner of the state. The suspect was subsequently turned over to that county’s authorities, Parrish said.
