North Bend police spent the night and morning searching for one of their patrol cars, after a thief or thieves kicked in the door to the police squad room in City Hall. The burglars made off with two Tasers and keys to the black Crown Victoria sedan.

They found the car this morning in Lakeside, but the thieves were long gone.

The case is under investigation, but the burglars apparently waited for the perfect opportunity Wednesday night.

Dispatchers sent the two officers on duty to investigate an assault at about 10:15 p.m., said police Chief Steve Scibelli. It was a real call. Police arrested a suspect and took him to jail.

When they arrived back at the station, officers discovered they’d been burgled.

Police officers are expected to lock all the exterior doors to the building, but some of the doors are old and don’t lock unless the key is turned just right, Scibelli said. There’s also a possibility someone hid inside the building.

“We assume they came in through one of the outside doors,” Scibelli said. “But we don’t know for sure.”

Dispatchers were working in the station at the time of the burglary, but their office is located in a different part of the station.

The only evidence of forced entry was into the squad room, which had a door jam and lock.

“The person was able to kick that open,” Scibelli said.

The thief or thieves drove off in one of the department’s older substitute vehicles, Scibelli said. It had been parked outside the City Hall.

Unlike the department’s other vehicles, the stolen sedan has its emergency lights mounted inside the cab, not on the roof.

Police have completed an inventory of the squad room and determined the keys and Tasers, which look like pistols, were the only things taken.

The Tasers are not lethal weapons, Scibelli said.

Officers took evidence from the area and will be sending it to a crime lab, the chief said.

Anyone who has information about the burglary is asked to call the police department at 756-3161.