Figured the news would start dying down after the hearing, but reporters might be widening their search. More info than I've copied over. This one is a wtf-kinda-thing, in 2009 a couple of intruders were reported, but the only things missing were a lock and a box of Oreos. (munchies?)
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link to www.kxan.com]
West Fertilizer plant targeted by thieves in past
Deputies called more than 10 times in 11 years
Sheriff's deputies were called more than 10 times to West Fertilizer in the 11 years before an April 17 blast that killed 14 people, injured 200 and leveled part of the tiny town of West, according to McLennan County sheriff's office files released through an open-records request. Multiple calls involved suspicion that anhydrous ammonia was being stolen.
A spokeswoman for the Texas State Fire Marshal's office, which is investigating the explosion, said the anhydrous ammonia tanks stored at West Fertilizer at the time of the blast appeared to have no scorch marks or any sign that they were part of a blast that left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
Matt Cawthon, the chief deputy sheriff in McLennan County, said in an interview Friday that anhydrous ammonia theft calls had declined in recent years, as had the number of meth labs authorities have busted as Mexican drug cartels are smuggling in more of the drug.
"The thefts ... and the reports for law enforcement assistance in that area, in my estimation, were minor and were petty," Cawthon said.
There were no reports that ammonium nitrate had been stolen from the plant, Cawthon said.
"If ammonium nitrate had been stolen ... then that report would have generated probably a lot of attention," he said.
West Fertilizer did not have a fence or security guards, and just one security camera was installed, Cawthon said. Besides the costs of adding security, the plant was often visited after hours by farmers needing fertilizer.
"If the owner was to spend that money to make this a fortress, it would decrease his business because the farmers can't come and go," Cawthon said.
