Four Times is too many

To the Editor:

During our nearly five years in Bethel, as owners and innkeepers of our B&B on Main Street, we have made many friends, and shared and learned much from our neighbors and guests. We know we made the right choice in moving here.

So it is was and is with great sadness that we report the multiple times we have been the victim of robbery in the last several months. Each of the first three times, a bottle of alcohol was taken from our guest area, in the middle of the day, when we were busy in other areas of the inn. So three, full bottles of alcohol and we now, of course, lock up when we would rather not, and have a monitoring system in place.

The last thing stolen, last week, was our “Vacancy Sign” that hung beneath our Holidae House sign in the front of our inn. Taken in the night, it is not hard to imagine that somewhere in a bedroom or dorm room the sign with the white “Vacancy” lettering is decorating a wall. Besides being expensive and time consuming to replace, we were further inconvenienced by not being able to put the sign up when we were called away for a family emergency, so potential guests did not know we were away, but assumed we were either ignoring them or negligent innkeepers.

So, we are asking that whoever took our sign, to please return it, leave it in the middle of the night, as it was taken if that is easier. We would be very grateful and the act would speak volumes in restoring the trust of all of Bethel.

Marcia Foster-Austin and Laurence Austin

Bethel