PENNSYLVANIA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM CHURCHESEvening Sun Online - LOCAL NEWSPolice trying to determine if church burglaries are connected

Five area churces report break-ins over the weekend

By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Evening Sun Reporter

The Rev. Jason Myers felt sick in his stomach Sunday morning.

An hour before Sunday school was to begin, Myers discovered someone had broken into his Penn Township church - Victory Free Will Baptist Church at 25 Breezewood Drive - and stolen checks and money.

The thief had entered the church between Thursday morning and Sunday morning and stolen $120 in cash, three checks, a set of keys to the church, a financial report, a lapel microphone and a Sharpie permanent marker.

Myers said the thief ignored a large jar of change, guitars, video equipment, televisions and computers.

"Everything's open. They had access to all of that and they didn't even take it," he said.

Four similar burglaries occurred at other area churches over the weekend.

* The Rev. Gary Bowers reported a broken window and a missing $900 computer at First Baptist Church in Germany Township.

* Someone entered St. John's Lutheran Church in Germany Township through an unlocked window and damaged two doors inside, according to a police report. Desks and drawers were also disrupted.

* At United Church of Christ in Union Township, the Rev. Melvin Mundie said someone entered through an unlocked window, took several monetary collections and rifled through office file cabinets. A computer monitor was also stolen, though the hard drive was left behind, Mundie said.

* Someone entered Calvary Assembly of God in West Manheim Township after removing an air conditioning unit from a rear window, according to West Manheim Township Police Officer Toby Wildasin. Supply drawers and cabinets were rifled through; a 27-inch television was stolen.

Other supplies, televisions and VCRs were left behind, the Rev. Angel Perez said.

"My first reaction was that someone borrowed it (the television)," Perez said.

After he asked the trustees and other church leaders, Perez realized someone had broken into the church.

But nothing else was taken.

"It's surprising and odd," Perez said. "Maybe they're amateurs and they're trying not to leave a long trail of who they are and what they're doing It's quite a challenge to understand what they were thinking."

Police are still trying to determine if the incidents are related.

State Police Sgt. Wade Lauer, commander of the Gettysburg barracks, said the fact that all of the burglaries occurred over the same weekend and happened at churches makes it seem like they could be connected.

"It's certainly a coincidence, but we need to check on some things with the other departments," Penn Township Police Chief Sam Gilbert said. "It's easy to jump to the conclusion that they're related."

Gilbert said he wants to contact the other police departments to find out how the burglars got in and what they took before he tries to determine if the burglaries were committed by the same people.

Wildasin said the time frame, the types of items stolen and the method of entry for the incidents in West Manheim and the Littlestown area "look similar."

"But we haven't excluded the option that ours is a separate and isolated incident," he said. "We've got to keep open all possibilities