Letter to Editor of The Recorder

Here's a letter to the editor I scribbled out and emailed to the Recorder today. Kind of sounds like I'm a conspiracy theorist or something, but there are serious doubts this article brings about. I'm an avid watcher of the FBI Files and those true-life crime shows, so I'm what you call an advanced amateur when it comes to this stuff! Anyway, heres my poorly written letter - I'll post a clipping if/when its in the paper, most likely it will be edited. My issues with the library break-in report I have a problem with the report of the stolen computers and break-in as reported in the 02/14/06 edition of the Recorder. After reviewing the article a couple of times some real red flags stand out. The biggest is where did thieves really enter? Greenfield's finest found an open door but the library Director insists on entry via a back door because of "damage" found by a locksmith. There was no quote from the locksmith, but I'm sure the police have obtained who the locksmith was and verified their assessment. Then there is the value placed on the three computers that were stolen. "$5,000 to $6,000." ... “They’re pretty new, about a year old." Giving her the benefit of poor cost control, maybe that’s the cost of the three complete systems but it doesn't say the complete systems were stolen - only "three computers". I researched comparable systems sold by Dell, they sell for around $1100.00 complete with everything a public library would need. So where is this extra $1700 to $2700 coming from, overhead charged to tax payers or contributors of the library? Paper trail to pad the possible insurance claim? Did the article miss something of value? It's a shame it happened to the children's room. I don't like hearing about bad things happening to children. It's our future that suffers. Those computers are there for children who don't have access to them at home to research and type up homework assignments and to play the occasional educational game. Whoever stole them should be ashamed. Yours very truly, Michael E. Henry Millers Falls.