Florida Holocaust Museum Hit by Break-In — No Damage to Displays
— A 23-year-old man who broke into the Florida Holocaust Museum did not damage any of the displays or steal anything.
St. Petersburg Police arrested Christopher Michael Venegas early Sunday morning, according to local reports. Surveillance camera footage at the museum in the central Florida city showed Venegas breaking an electronic keypad and call box, which sent a signal to the police, who arrived minutes later.
Venegas was charged with one count of commercial burglary and was later released on $5,000 bail. He refused to talk to police, according to WFTS Tampa Bay.
The museum praised the police for their quick response.
“In the past few years, local grants from Homeland Security have allowed us to begin upgrading our security systems,” its executive director, Elizabeth Gelman, said in a statement. “Those security measures — and the quick response from the St. Petersburg Police — assisted in keeping damage to the minimum.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
