WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and SportsLt. Gov. Lawton crime victim

Lt. Gov. Lawton crime victim

MADISON (WKOW) -- Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton's private car was vandalized in a security locked garage at her Madison residence just weeks before she announced her candidacy for governor.
 
Lawton stunned supporters and political observers earlier this week when she announced she was abandoning her bid for governor, citing unspecified personal family reasons.   Lawton told Wausau's WAOW-TV there were "myriad factors,"  but did not identify any.   Lawton did not address her sense of security in her former bid for the state's highest elected position.
 
Manager Debra Mickelson of Urban Land Interests said Lawton's car was damaged June 23 in the underground garage at Kennedy Point condominiums on Winnebago Street.
 
"There was glass everywhere," Mickelson told 27 News. 

"The vehicle had its passenger side window broken out,"   Madison police officer Howard Payne said.  

Payne said there was no evidence anything was stolen from Lawton's 2003 Buick Regal.
 
Mickelson and a police official confirmed Lawton's car was the only car damaged in the sixty-stall garage.

Police records show only four calls for service to the forty two unit building this year, with the vandalism to Lawton's car the only apparent crime.

"There was no type of connection whatsoever to the building having any type of problem that created this scenario,"   Payne told 27 News.   Payne said there's been no determination whether the vandalism was an opportunity crime, or whether Lawton was targeted.

Payne and Mickelson said Lawton's husband, Charles "Cal" Lawton reported the crime and handled follow up from officers and building officials.

A request by 27 News for police reports on the crime is pending with Madison police officials.  
 
State Capitol police detective Ed Bardon told 27 News his agency had not been informed of the crime involving the lieutenant governor's car. State Capitol police officers provide security for certain state officials.

In March, De Pere police investigators contacted state capitol police officials when an armed man was arrested on property formerly owned by the Lawton family.

Lawton has yet to return a call for comment from 27 News.   A Lawton spokesperson said Lawton is in New York attending an event for a non-profit group involved with women entrepreneurs.