BIDDEFORD, Maine — An anonymous offender has repaid the city for damages caused to Biddeford City Hall — 40 years later.
Biddeford Mayor Alan Casavant received a letter Friday, along with a money order for $550, paying the city back for damages made by the individual in the 1970s.
“Hello Mr. Mayor,” wrote the offender. “I am paying back for damages inflicted upon your city in the mid- to late ’70s.”
The person wrote they shattered the door to the police station, when it was located at City Hall, in addition to shattering a window adjacent to the door.
“Also broke the window to the right of the door, also put a dent in the cruiser,” the person wrote. “As for the fire department, I pulled some fire call boxes (in the) same time frame.”
Casavant said Monday he was “totally surprised” when he opened the letter.
“It’s not something you see every day,” he said. “In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever seen this.”
Casavant said it’s likely the person’s guilt built up enough over the years to motivate them to take action, “which is pretty impressive, if you think about it.”
“He must’ve felt guilty about what he did and felt remorse and tried to make good on it,” Casavant said.
The $550 will likely be placed into the city’s General Fund, Casavant said, though there’s some confusion because city officials have never handled this kind of situation before.
“Since we don’t do this too often, we don’t really know where it goes,” he said.
Casavant said, if he were to speak with the anonymous writer, he’d thank them for making right on their actions so many years ago.
“I’d say ‘thank you’ [and] ‘that it says an awful lot about your character,’” he said. “I say that because obviously he or she did something that was not good, but yet he or she had enough character to do something about it.
“I just find when people do something like that it just says a lot about them,” he said.