Portage Police are investigating the burglary on Wednesday of the United Steelworkers Local 6103 union hall at 1919 Willowcreek Road.

According to police, at 8:16 a.m. Local 6103 President William Kalin reported the burglary and provided investigators with surveillance video footage of the incident.

The footage showed the following, police said. At 11:33 p.m. two male subjects—after walking past the building once, then returning—looked through the window of the union hall and pulled on the locked door. They then walked to the south side of the building, removed a cinder block which had been holding down a tent, and while one of the subjects hid near a dumpster, the other threw the block through the glass door and entered the building.

Inside the building, police said, the subject removed a DVD player and remote control from a TV stand in the corner, exited through the broken door, and handed the items to the other subject. The subject then re-entered the building, kicked in the doors to a computer lab and an office, entering both but apparently removing nothing from either, and finally exited the union hall for good.

Both subjects fled the scene eastbound on Eagle Ave., police said. “It didn’t appear they ever returned and no vehicles were seen leaving the area.”

Police put the loss at $30. No estimate of damage was available.

Police described the subject who entered the building as a black male with short hair and a goatee, wearing long black shorts, long white socks, and a white tee-shirt with a bird design on front and back. He was carrying a small flashlight.

The subject who hid by the dumpster was described as a white male, slim with short hair, wearing khaki shorts and a white tank top. He was sporting a “somewhat circular shaped tattoo on the back of his neck, an unknown type tattoo on his left arm, and a ‘band’ shaped tattoo on his right arm,” police said.

Posted 7/16/2010