The Dallas County Courthouse was broken into earlier this week.

And, just days earlier, so was the Polk County Courthouse.

The historic Polk County Courthouse was burglarized shortly after midnight Monday in an incident similar to that in a neighboring county involving two men hired by the state's judicial branch to test the "vulnerability" of court records, the Polk County Sheriff's office said in a Friday news release.

Two days after the alleged Polk County break-in, authorities responded around 12:30 a.m. to alarms at the Dallas County Courthouse triggered by the two men whom law enforcement found walking around the courthouse's third floor with burglary tools, court records show.

The Monday morning incident was similar to what occurred two days later in Dallas County, but authorities have yet to explain how.

Sgt. Ryan Evans on Friday said he could not reveal at this time what exactly happened at the Polk County Courthouse or whether they've identified any suspects.

The men arrested Wednesday in Dallas County told law enforcement they were on contract to test out the courthouse alarm system's viability and to gauge law enforcement's response time, an alleged contract that Dallas County officials said they had no knowledge of, according to a criminal complaint.

Authorities later found out the state court administration did, in fact, hire the men to attempt "unauthorized access" to court records "through various means" in order to check for potential security vulnerabilities of Iowa's electronic court records, according to Iowa Judicial Branch officials.

More:Men arrested for breaking into Dallas County Courthouse after judicial branch hires them to test 'vulnerability' of court records

But, the state court administration "did not intend, or anticipate, those efforts to include the forced entry into a building," a Wednesday news release from the Iowa Judicial Branch read.

Justin Wynn, of Naples, Florida, and Gary Demercurio, 43, of Seattle, Washington, have been charged with third-degree burglary and possession of burglary tools. Their bond has been set at $50,000; both have since bonded out.

The men were employed with Coalfire, a cybersecurity advisor headquartered out of Colorado, Iowa Judicial Branch spokesman Steve Davis confirmed.

A spokesperson for Coalfire declined to comment on the situation Wednesday afternoon. Wynn also declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday.

The state court administration issued an apology Wednesday to Dallas County officials, who are continuing to investigate the break-in.

Davis said Friday that the Iowa Judicial Branch is also investigating the Polk County incident, though he didn't confirm if they were related.

"State court administration does not condone forcible entry into any building as a part of cyber-security or any other type of testing," he added.

Both the Dallas County and Polk County sheriff's offices are continuing to investigate.

Check back for updates.

Anna Spoerre covers crime and courts for the Des Moines Register. She can be contacted at aspoerre@dmreg.com, 515-284-8387 or on Twitter at @annaspoerre.

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