MIDDLEBURY — Federal agents seized computers, documents and other items from a Middlebury fire station Thursday for an investigation.
The probe is financial in nature and apparently targets the fire chief, the chief said.
Fire Chief Paul Perrotti said he got a call from the FBI at 8 a.m. saying agents were at the fire station at 65 Tucker Hill Road. He answered some questions and allowed them full access, he said.
The agents were looking for any information about payroll, Perrotti said.
“I figured, by no means have I done anything wrong,” he said in a telephone interview shortly before 2 p.m. “I gave them full transparency.”
Perrotti runs a volunteer fire department with some 100 members. He earns a stipend that adds up to about $600 a month, he said.
“I think somebody’s got an ax to grind,” he said. He didn’t know who that would be, he said.
The FBI declined to talk about the investigation.
“All I’m prepared to say is FBI agents were in Middlebury, Connecticut this morning working in support of an investigation,” spokesman Dan Curtain said.
Curtain said about 1:15 p.m. that the agents had cleared the scene.