Lumberton Police partners with Terror Test to raise money for city needs

LUMBERTON, Miss. - The Lumberton Police Department is rebuilding it’s community piece by piece, including local relations.

“It’s not always about…putting people in jail. That’s not what we want people to think we are here for. We apart of this community as well, we are apart of this community everyday. We spend a lot of time in this community more than we do our own families,” said Lumberton Police Chief, Carlus Page.

According to the police chief, apart of rebuilding the community includes; hosting fundraisers for the department and establishing a network between officers, small businesses and organizations.

“I started reaching out to Mr. Potenza about bringing coffee with a cop here – so we can start building those relations and change the make up of what people’s public perception of what local police department,” he explains.

After meeting with Hattiesburg Java Werks café co-owner, Cesar Potenza, the two men came up with the idea of reaching out to the haunted house management of Terror Test. “I saw it as an opportunity to come back, bring local business back to Lumberton and get in touch with the community and help in a way that we’ve never done before. Help change the community in a positive way,” said Head of Management, Dylan Ritchie.

Terror Test haunted house attraction closed it;s doors in 2016, but will open again this fall. It will not only serve as local entertainment, but a fundraiser for police equipment and drug and alcohol abuse research.

"...talking to Mr. Richie, he told me about this Behavior Research Institute that was beginning construction here in Lumberton. He saw the things in the news and various forms of media that we are really trying to battle our drug problem in Lumberton...," Chief Page explained.

Ritchie shared with Page the Behavior Research Institute and LPD shares the same mission in regard to getting rid of drugs in with "a reactive response other than pharmaceutical drugs”