Suspect who stole guns, snow plow lived in closed school, police say

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Police said that a man accused of stealing nearly $9,000 in items from a business during a recent winter storm was also illegally living inside of a closed school.

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The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that its deputies were called to an alarm at a Watertown business early Tuesday morning. When deputies arrived, they saw an unoccupied pickup truck with a plow parked near the door of the business. Inside the business, deputies found a suspect, identified as Sean Briggs.

Deputies said that when they arrived, Briggs was in the process of “stealing $8,566.68 worth of firearms, hunting, trapping, camping and fishing gear, which had been staged in jet sleds near an exit.”

Investigators determined that the truck and plow outside of the business had been stolen from General Brown High School in Brownville, WWTI reported.

Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies said Briggs broke into the school on Christmas Day when his car got stuck in a snowbank. In the news release, deputies said that Briggs spent two days inside the school, “eating food from a concession stand, cooking in the home economics room, and playing basketball in the gymnasium.”

Briggs faces a list of charges, including burglary and criminal mischief, WWNY reported.

Briggs was released from jail and is scheduled to appear back in court on Dec. 29.

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