Tilton police following leads to ID thief of historic light fixture

TILTON — Police are continuing to investigate the apparent theft of an antique light fixture from an historic residence at Tilton School last week.

Police Chief Abraham Gilman said Monday that evidence was recovered from the light, which was discovered by a night security guard shortly after the light’s disappearance was publicized. “We have a few leads” to follow, Gilman said.

The light, which illuminated the front entrance to the Charles E. Tilton Mansion, was thought to have been hanging on the front porch, undisturbed, since the grand home was constructed in 1861. Since 1962, the home has been owned by the school, which used the structure as a library for many years.

The approximately 4-foot-long fixture was noticed missing the morning of April 3, and was suspected to have been taken sometime after nightfall on the previous day. A social media posting about the incident was shared far and wide — but, it turned out, the missing item didn’t travel far at all.

Brent Walterscheid, who works for Tilton School as a night security officer, heard about the theft when he showed up for his shift on April 3. When he was doing his usual patrol, he noticed something usual in a wooded area near the Tilton Mansion. Walterscheid, who has four decades of experience in law enforcement, saw a pile of leaves and sticks, but what caught his eye was a scrap of artificial grass included in the debris. That pile, he discovered, was concealing the light fixture.

Gilman said whoever removed the fixture had likely hidden it there for later retrieval.

“It looks like it was too big or too heavy to come walking down the road. Someone was looking to come up with a plan to retrieve the item,” Gilman said.

If not for Walterscheid, the thief or thieves might well have succeeded in finding an opportunity to come pick up the fixture. Instead, the property is once again secured and will continue to be a part of the town’s historical record.

“He did a great job of checking the area, finding that buried down over the hill in that location, that was a big find,” Gilman said. “That was huge; kudos to that gentleman.”

The fixture’s value was likely somewhere around $30,000, Gilman said. Whoever stole it, though, probably intended to take it to a metals recycler, who would have paid for the scrap value of the copper.

“They wouldn’t know what they were dealing with,” Gilman said, adding that whatever they realized in the form of profit “would be a fraction of" the cost.