Has your church ever been burglarized?
 

Church discovers loss of more than $8,000
By: The Enterprise


11/16/2007

Updated 11/17/2007 12:17:22 AM CST

A Beaumont church lost more than $8,000 worth of musical instruments, computer hardware and collectibles in a burglary, according to police reports.

The Amelia United Pentecostal Church, also known as Gospel Tabernacle, reported the burglary Wednesday night before services. Police found several broken windows and blood around the window sills.

Among the items stolen were an antic acoustic guitar, a laptop computer and several collectible rifles, according to the report.


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This UPCI church was just burglarized this week, apparently.

Has your church ever been burglarized?

When dad pastored in the South Bronx we were robbed all the time.

One Sunday morning, in the early 1980's, as dad opened the church we were surprised to find a huge gaping hole that was made so that a thief could go upstairs of the 2 story church building.

Within seconds, the thief emerged w/ two fans in his hands. We were obviously scared but Dad valiantly confronted the man and simply asked why he was there and that he needed to leave.

The man simply said in Spanish, "My addiction." He then handed dad the fans and ran out the building.

In another instance, a young man from the church worked at a sporting goods store down the block from the church was surprised by a burglar at the church. He would often go to the church to pray during his lunch break. One afternoon, as he prayed at the altar, he was interrupted as he heard noise coming from the storage closet. He then proceeded to explore the closet but as he tried to push the door open ... he realized a thief was hiding inside and would not let the brother open the closet door ....

They struggled for almost an hour ... and finally the brother convinced the man to surrender. He told the thief that he would escort the man to the sporting goods store where he would be apprehended by an armed security guard. The thief complied ... he walked w/ brother Oscar to the store where the guard called the police and he was apprehended.

There were other times when the thieves got away.

Thankfully the Queens church was never burglarized.

Interesting form of worship right there....

Yes, I know of two churches.

The church in Milwaukee that we attended had all the sound equipment stolen, including the master control board.

An elder at another church left after service and on the way home remembered he had forgotten something at church. He drove back and noticed a van that was pulled up and a guy inside piling up the instruments and sound equipment. He called a couple of the brothers and then they went in and confronted the guy. They asked him what he thought he was doing......He said "I'm steal'n this stuff what does it look like?" The Police showed up and arrested him.

The rifles were for weddings! :ursofunny

Shotgun weddings still eh?

yes, our churches in Brazil many of them have been broken into and we have lost guitars. mirophones and other things...once some even took our chairs at one of the churches!

When I was about 8 yrs old I remember so clearly as I attended our church school, This was at Bro Kershaws church, got to school early and there were police cars everywhere. The office area had been broken into and we had one of those very large safes that had been attatched to the actual building. They took the entire safe out of the building. It was found if I remember correctly everything still there about 8 blocks away.

We also had some of our sound equip missing also...


Have you ever heard of vehicles being stolen out of the church parking lot?

My dad had just bought a brand new truck and it was stolen out of the parking lot just months after the safe incident. Found months later cut to shreds at the bottom of lake ray hubbard.

Somebody stole an expensive guitar out of our car in the states just a month or so ago and we did not even realize it until we were packing for Brazil...they exchanged our guitar for another one...lol...

At the Bronx church ... an usher was assigned to watching the cars parked along the curbside of the street ....

Many times the cars were taken or their batteries were swiped.

One place where we were was notorious for high crime. After the sound equipment was taken the first time, some of the guys fashioned this impenetrable steel reinforced door. When the bad guys came around again they took an axe and tried to chop through the door. They defaced the door - but didn't get anywhere close to inside the soundroom/bunker.

Another place the communion wine always turned up missing. Our elders believed in using wine- but they believed that you had better not enjoy the experience. So the wine bottle was usually kept open and left around for a couple of years. It tasted like vinegar. Only folks you could compell to drink the stuff was an Apostolic or a wino.

One year right before the midnight service it tuned out the wine was gone. I dashed down to a local bar & restaurant - all the liquor stores were closed. As it happened, I knew some of the family that owned the parent company and I walked up to the bar keeper. I started chatting him up and and dropped several names. I then explained my predicament. Since the restaurant didn't have a "package" license he could not legally sell me any wine - unless we moved the whole church service to the restaurant, and given the church's reputation he didn't want that. So he gave me a free bottle of wine. First communion ever that the wine didn't make everyone gag.