Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen and his staff were disturbed to arrive at the office in downtown Greensboro recently to find that the glass entrance door on the side of the building facing the Old Guilford County Court House had been smashed by a woman who threw a brick at the door in the middle of the night.

Thigpen has now seen security video of the event and it turns out the culprit was a woman who threw the brick repeatedly at the door during the night and then attempted to damage an ATM on another side of the building as well, also by throwing the brick at it.

Thigpen told the Rhino Times this week that it was fascinating to watch the security video from two cameras.  He also said more security measures had been enacted to help protect the building in the future.

The incident happened several weeks ago on a cold night.  In the video, Thigpen said, at first he couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.  However, it turned out to be a woman.  He said she had a brick that she threw at the glass down in an underhanded pitch like a softball player might make.  He said the woman then went out of sight of the camera and later came back and threw the brick twice more at the big glass door.

According to the register of deeds, the woman then went around to the ATM on the West Market Street side of the building and threw the brick at the ATM.

“Then she got out a phone and made a phone call,” Thigpen said.

That call was a call to the police, to which the woman apparently reported that someone had been throwing a brick at the downtown building, which houses a Truist Bank branch in addition to various county offices.

On the video, a police officer arrives and checks around, and then the woman, Thigpen surmised, admitted that she was the culprit – because the police officer took her off to jail.

Thigpen said it seemed as though she wanted to be arrested.

“I think she was doing that to try and get in from the cold,” Thigpen said.

After the attack on the building, the glass door was so damaged that it could be easily pushed in entirely.

The building now has a nice new door.

Thigpen said the damage to the ATM was minimal.