FERRIDAY — Thieves broke into a Ferriday business and trashed the place, but the only things they took were Christmas presents.

The Ferriday police responded to a burglary at Ronnie Bradford’s AllState Insurance Company at 1005 Third St. early Thursday morning.

“They trashed the building all up,” Ferriday Assistant Police Chief Johnny Evans said.

This is the sixth burglary at the business this year, Bradford said.

The extent of the mayhem the thieves left in their wake was fairly substantial, but they didn’t do any physical damage to the business.

“It was mainly papers thrown everywhere,” Bradford said.

Aside from approximately $200 in Christmas presents for his daughters that Bradford was keeping at the business, nothing was taken.

“No computers were taken, no machines were vandalized,” he said.

“It’s kind of making me scratch my head. It makes me wonder what they were looking for — they just went through a bunch of personal files.”

The thieves took the businesses books out of the cabinet and rifled through them, and even though there was $15 sitting in the open, they didn’t take it, Bradford said.

The burglars entered the building by breaking out a window, officials said.

“We have gotten a price on alarms and a price for putting bars on the doors,” Bradford said. “We’re putting Plexiglas in the windows. They’ve broken every window and a door over a period of time.”

The police were the ones who discovered the burglary during a routine patrol, and Bradford said he appreciated the job they did.

The thief did leave something behind.

“He left blood,” Bradford said. “Hopefully the state crime lab will be able to analyze it and match the DNA.”

The matter is under investigation, Evans said.