Marietta Fire Museum vandalized in break-in
A Marietta man was arrested after breaking into the Marietta Fire Museum and causing over $3,000 in damage to the property.
Mjiti Whitlow, 39, was arrested on charges of burglary and damage to property Thursday morning.
According to his arrest warrant, Whitlow entered the Marietta Police Department at approximately 2:15 a.m. and headed for the museum.
Capt. Steve Dau, spokesperson for the Marietta Fire Department, said most of the damage was contained to items on the upper level of the museum.
Dau said the assailant caused damage to mannequins modeling old uniforms, an antique fire extinguisher, an antique coin-operated ride, and an antique fire truck.
Whitlow also sprayed a fire extinguisher over several cases, causing several cleanup issues. He also broke an antique fire ax off one of the old trucks, which, Dau said, was luckily not used to cause further damage.
“When we came in, it looked a lot worse than it ended up being only because, whatever was going on with this gentleman, he spent a lot of time just spending time in the museum,” Dau said. “... He was walking through the museum carrying that ax with him, but thankfully, did not decide to do anything with that ax ... It could have been much, much worse.”
Whitlow spent over five hours inside the museum before his arrest at 7:50 a.m.
Dau said authorities are still investigating how Whitlow managed to gain access to the museum.
“It is a concern. Did he find a way in? Was a door left unlocked? So it’s something we are looking into because we’ve never had this happen,” Dau said. “And obviously, being a fire station where our firefighters are sleeping just adjacent to this museum is concerning for us that someone would not only be able to get in but be undetected for almost five-and-a-half hours before he left the museum.”
The museum closed for cleanup Thursday but is once again open free of charge to the public, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week.