Spokane Police investigating overnight break-in at Old City Hall | Crime

Police are investigating an overnight break-in at Old City Hall where vandals broke an elevator and ransacked multiple offices. 

The downtown Spokane building along Wall Street is mostly vacant, but neighborhood resource officers with Spokane Police explained it gets a lot of people going through the building late at night due to multiple access points from staircases, nearby restaurants and River Park Square.

The building’s manager was tipped off to suspicious activity when the elevator was reportedly not working on Thursday morning. When officers arrived, they found a button punched out to keep the elevator in place.

Office employees on the third floor spent their morning cleaning up the mess that the vandals left. Some computers were taken, but the damage is still being assessed.

Officers took away a peppermint bark tin that was left out and plan on brushing it for fingerprints.

Burglaries are not common in the building, but Officer Shanie Redmon said transient populations were regularly using the space earlier this year to sleep below the escalators. Frequent patrols through the building have reduced the transient activity since then, but there’s still a lack of alarms in the building.

Redmon added that drug paraphernalia is commonly found in the building’s restrooms.

Spokane Police spokesperson Jennifer DeRuwe added that a lock box was stolen overnight as well with the building's master key.