ORRVILLE, Ohio — The Wayne County Sheriff's Office is looking for whoever is responsible for stealing tools, gas, and a bus from Kingsway Christian School near Orrville over the weekend.
The elaborate theft involved breaking a window to get into the building through a concession stand area and moving through a door into the building's weight room.
"We noticed a hole broken in the ceiling," Larry Groves, the school's maintenance director, said. "When we started to investigate that, [we] realized that they had gotten up in the ceiling."
Groves says the thief or thieves used the hole to get into an attic space, breaking through a firewall to come out of the ceiling inside the bus garage.
"They had to know that the only way they were going to get down is to come down on top of the bus and then climb down," Groves explained.
Once inside the bus garage, the suspects stole gas out of lawnmowers, diesel fuel out of a school bus, tools, and a white transportation bus with the words "Kingsway Christian School" written on its side, according to Groves.
"There are cameras on our building, and if they would of gone through the parking lot, we might of caught them on one," Groves added.
Instead, the bus was driven down an access road behind trees, blocking the view of cameras.
Groves estimates the cost of the property damage with the stolen bus and tools adds up to between $30,000 and $40,000. The school is hoping to get the bus back and to see whoever committed the crime held responsible for their actions.
Anyone with information on this crime can call the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.
UPDATE: On Wednesday, Kingsway school leaders told 3News that the bus has been located in West Virginia. The bus is being towed back to Northeast Ohio, however officials are unsure about the conditions inside the vehicle. The stolen tools are still missing.