Former Massachusetts Governor Burglarized in Vermont
Vermont State Police are investigating the burglary of a Cornwall home rented by former Massachusetts governor Jane Swift, according to State Trooper Evan Doxsee.
Swift says that when she returned from work at 7 p.m. Tuesday to the house she rents from Middlebury College, she found the front door had been kicked in.
"I immediately went back to my car, locked my doors and called 911," she says, adding that security training she received as governor came in handy. "Someone had obviously been through the house. There wasn't a lot to take. They did take a couple prescriptions and some cheap jewelry."
According to Doxsee, the thief or thieves rummaged through at least six rooms in the house. The trooper said he had no leads.
"I'd say it's a pretty ongoing thing throughout the entire county that people will break in, steal prescription drugs, loose change, very easily attainable items to sell," Doxsee says.
A six-year state senator, Swift was elected lieutenant governor of the Bay State in 1998 and became acting governor in April 2001, when then-governor Paul Cellucci was appointed ambassador to Canada. She did not run for a full term when Cellucci's expired in 2003. (This guy did.)
Now CEO of Middlebury Interactive Languages, Swift lives in Williamstown, Mass., and stays in Cornwall during the workweek. As we noted in last week's Fair Game, she and her family are planning to relocate to Vermont soon.
Swift says the incident hasn't discouraged her at all from moving to the Green Mountain State, adding that the state police did a "phenomenal job" responding to the incident.
"I feel very safe in Vermont, just like I feel safe in Western Massachusetts. I think it's probably more shocking because of how rare stuff like this is," she says. "I looked at another property today with my husband, and we're very excited to move our family here."
