By Erin Heffernan
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
KINLOCH, Mo. — Authorities say a St. Louis man broke into a Kinloch firehouse for five hours Monday, ate a tub of ice cream, took a shower and stalked the building with a butcher knife and a fireman’s tool before he was discovered.
Thomas Robertson, 28, of the 400 block of Thomas Street in St. Louis, was charged Tuesday with felony second-degree burglary.
Police say he broke into the Kinloch Fire Protection District house, at 5684 Martin Luther King Boulevard, through a window Monday night.
When he was questioned, Robertson told police he forced his way into the building to find his sister, who he said he believed had been buried in the basement.
Surveillance video shows the man breaking into several rooms using a fireman’s tool he took from the front of a fire engine, court documents allege.
The video, first obtained by KTVI (Channel 2), shows the man in the firehouse for more than five hours. At one point he strips down to his briefs and takes a shower.
Later he appears with a tub of ice cream he attempts to hide in the ceiling, and then puts on a bulletproof vest.
He is seen on camera walking around the station with a piece of cloth on his head holding a butcher knife just before the firefighters arrive for duty and discover him, KTVI reported.
“Who does that? Who breaks into a fire station?” Kinloch Fire Assistant Chief Kevin Stewart told the station.
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