Apr. 4—A 33-year-old man who ransacked Scranton City Hall offices during a break-in Monday night dropped a master key to the building while he made his way through the corridors, police said.

A criminal complaint filed Monday did not make clear how exactly Robert Ian Craig came to acquire a door key to the building, though it was believed he found it in the fourth floor Code Enforcement Office. He dropped it in the third-floor hallway.

Some managers and maintenance staff are issued such keys, which she said open some offices but not all, according to Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti.

"It is not a universal key for the building," she said in a text message.

Police said Craig vandalized workstations and pulled wires out of computers and electronics in two offices he managed to get in — the Code Enforcement Office on the fourth floor and the Controller's Office on the second floor.

Authorities also believe Craig trespassed moments earlier into a staff-only area of the Scranton Public Library and in the upper floors of the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple, where lodge member Luke Schofield said the suspect rifled through empty cabinets and Masonic stationery.

In a message to City Hall employees Monday night, Cognetti said a person entered the building while the doors were open for a Shade Tree Commission meeting. The note reminded employees to lock their office doors at the end of the business day.

City Controller John Murray said his paycheck stubs had been tossed onto the floor and his computer had been unplugged, but nothing appeared stolen.

A janitor, Eunice Smith, told police she saw a man in the building but thought nothing of it because the public could attend a meeting that night. Thirty minutes later, the door to the Code Enforcement Office opened and closed, police said. That struck her as odd because no one should have been on the fourth floor.

Attempts to reach Thomas Oleski, the director of the Code Enforcement Office, were not successful Tuesday.

She saw the man, who police said was Craig, walk down the stairs to the third floor, where he dropped two sets of keys. Police said Craig dropped a door key to the building and a set that opened filing cabinets.

Craig fled once he made his way to Scranton Fire Headquarters, which is connected to City Hall by a bridge.

Fire Capt. Albert Taylor noticed a man attempt to walk into the department's bunkroom and tried to confront him, but that man — Craig, police said — fled to Dix Court. He dropped a city-owned flashlight and a key for a new city-owned Chevrolet in the process, police said.

The police reviewed surveillance camera footage to see where Craig went as he was inside the building.

City detectives located and detained Craig Monday night. He remains at the Lackawanna County Prison on probation violations and in lieu of $40,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is set April 17.

Cognetti said in a statement they do not believe "sensitive documentation" was taken.

City Hall, she noted, is also undergoing renovations, which include a swipe card access for employees and keypad access for some offices.

"This incident highlights the importance of security for our public buildings for the safety of our employees, volunteer board members and the public we serve," she said.

Craig faces one count each of burglary, theft and institutional vandalism and four counts of criminal trespass, according to court records.

It was the third time in approximately 17 months that Craig, a resident of St. James Manor, a Pine Brook transitional housing facility, had been arrested in Lackawanna County for similar offenses. Two earlier cases remain pending.

In October 2020, Craig, then staying in a room at Motel 81 in Scott Twp., was accused of stealing money from slot machines installed at the gas station where he worked.

Court paperwork filed in 2021 by his public defender, Jillian Kochis, indicated Craig appeared to suffer from psychosis and did not seem to fully comprehend the nature of the charges against him, which include theft.

He was placed into a treatment court, but was ordered back to jail Jan. 23, two days after an arrest in Scranton for criminal trespass. In that case, police said he roamed the Forum Towers on Linden Street shortly after 4 a.m. Jan. 21, trying doorknobs and seeing where he could go.

On Feb. 16, he was released from jail so he could attend inpatient treatment, records show.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.