School Break-ins in Howard County

School doesn't start until Aug. 29, but some thieves apparently can't wait that long.

There have been a number of break-ins at schools around Howard County Public Schools in less than a month. The latest, reported Tuesday by the Howard County Police, was at a construction site at Mt. Hebron High School between Aug. 13 and Aug. 15.

The trend isn’t unheard of, according to Elizabeth Schroen, public information officer at the police department. But it’s not a trend of breaking into schools. 

“Moreso than school break-ins, they’ve mostly been at construction areas in the schools,” she said. “We do tend to see an uptick [in construction break-ins] in the summer.”

Thieves are mostly after copper and high-valued tools, Schroen said. 

Additional school break-ins this summer: 

• Between Aug. 13 and Aug. 15, an unknown number of suspects cut locks and entered a construction site at Mt. Hebron High School, stealing wire and a generator.
• On Aug. 8, a portable classroom was reportedly broken into and a speaker stolen from Laurel Woods Elementary in Laurel. Police said the speaker was recovered nearby.
• Patuxent Valley Middle School in Jessup was reportedly broken into on Aug. 2.
• On July 31, a vending machine was damaged after a break-in at Mt. Hebron High School in Ellicott City. Wire and a generator were reported stolen from Mt. Hebron after locks were cut, reported on Aug. 13.