At a Valentine's Day meeting Town Council expressed unanimous praise for the work of the Middleburg Police Department in the wake of a string of burglaries in western Loudoun and northern Fauquier counties.

By early January of this year law enforcement authorities in Loudoun and Fauquier counties had established what they believed to be clear connections between a string of no less than six burglaries in the area.

The perpetrators appeared to strike unoccupied homes and businesses, focusing their efforts on jewelry and electronic devices. To date no violence has reported in any of the cases.

On January 25 at a home just over the Fauquier County line on Halfway road, police reported that yet another burglary attempt had been interrupted while still in progress. At least two suspects fled the scene, one in a vehicle which was later found abandoned near town by Middleburg PD Senior Officer Mike Prince.

Officers from the Loudoun and Fauquier County Sheriffs' Departments, and the Middleburg's Police Chief and two officers soon converged on Federal Street in Middleburg, where a suspect, identified as Damian Scott Francis Falero, 29, of Farmville, Virginia, had been spotted.

By 9:00 PM on the 25th it was clear that Falero had managed to escape. That night a white, 2011, Chrysler van was stolen from a winery in nearby Fauquier.

The van was found and Falero was later arrested at a motel near Richmond.

The investigation and search for the other suspects in the crime spree continues.

Chief Panebianco's Middleburg force, he reports, has been on high alert. Both the Chief and his officers have been seen counseling concerned residents, doing extra checks of doors and windows after hours, and generally maintaining a high state of vigilance in a community in which unlocked doors had long been the norm. A security briefing organized by the Chief for concerned citizens at Middleburg's Community center on January 31, featured presentations on security preparedness and question-and-answer sessions with officers familiar with the ongoing investigation.

At that session at least one Clarke County resident noted similar incidents reported there as early as October of last year.

In response to Council's praise Chief Panebianco was quick to credit officers the work of officers Prince and Fadely.

Panebianco had special praise for Senior Police Officer Mike Prince for his work in the investigation and apprehension of the perpetrator of an unrelated breaking and entering incident at a popular Middleburg flower shop. According to Panebianco, the person arrested by Prince in that case has confessed and, at press time, charges were pending.