The firefighters who protect the public are looking to police, hoping they can solve a crime of a fire station burglarized while the workers were out on a call last Sunday.
The burglary took place at Fire Station 42, which is located off San Jose Boulevard in Mandarin.
According to a police report, the call for help turned out to be false and firefighters returned to the station to find someone wandering around inside. Then, they said they discovered some things were missing, including a watch, sunglasses and money.
"They confronted an individual that was coming out of the building as they were coming back, but of course at that time they had no indication that something had been stolen," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson.
Officials said when the rescue crew left, the outer bay doors of the firehouse were left open but the door to the interior was closed.
Firefighters said it was upsetting that someone would take advantage of them while they were out trying to help others.
It remains unclear whether the false-alarm call and the burglary are connected. Officials said it's always a concern about somebody making a hoax call that could lead to a dangerous situation.
"The lesson here is that you can't be trusting of leaving your valuables and personal items open even if you're out performing a public service and would think nobody would go inside to do something like this," Jefferson said.
Although the value of the items taken from the station was a few hundred dollars, firefighters and police said what really bothered them was the principle of it all.
"If someone would go inside of a church and steal from it, they would go inside of a firehouse and steal from it. So, you can't be that trusting," Jefferson said.
Channel 4's Dan Leveton reported that since the beginning of 2006 there have been a dozen incidents of items being stolen from a firehouse.
