ARKANSAS COMPUTER STOLEN TheCabin.net ·· Local church burglarized 03/25/09:

Local church burglarized

By JOE LAMB
LOG CABIN STAFF WRITER

A local church was burglarized Monday night or early Tuesday morning.


Better Life Ministries has been in Conway for a couple of years and at its present location, 1151 Markham St., for about a year. It's a small but growing congregation, pastor Robert Oliver said Tuesday afternoon, and though it's a blow to have more than $3,000 worth of musical equipment and the church'scomputer stolen, "I'm not discouraged."


Inside the church a group of more than a dozen teenagers were praying that whoever broke into the church would return what was stolen.

Most of these teenagers showed up Tuesday to spend a spring break afternoon in choir practice, but found that someone had stolen much of their musical equipment.

In the church's office, where it seems the thief or thieves made entry, a $1,200 Acer laptop computer bearing serial number LXAWR0X053715000162000 was stolen.

A window into this office about six feet off the ground was broken. A window-unit air conditioner was also damaged as though someone had crouched atop it and gone through the window, which was still rimmed with broken glass Tuesday.

It must have been a small person to get through the window, Oliver said, and a faint partial shoeprint left on mirror found on the floor of his office had a waffle-like pattern he said seemed consistent with "a kid's shoe," or sneaker.

The glass of a door a few feet away from the window used to gain entry was also broken. Oliver said it seems the thief or thieves tried to get in through this door, but the door doesn't go anywhere, opening onto the back of an interior wall.

Police didn't have any suspects Tuesday. Oliver and others at the church didn't have a guess either. "A lot of people" were in the church Sunday, Oliver said, during a celebration of his and his wife's anniversary, and some in the church were speculating that one of these visitors could have seen the equipment and started plotting the burglary.

Among the items stolen were the laptop computer, a $1,500 Roland RD-300SX digital keyboard and Hercules keyboard stand, two snare drums, an Alto Elvis 15-inch speaker cabinet, a Peavey 600 amplifier and a $185 Audio-Technica cordless microphone that a 16-year-old church member had bought as a gift to Oliver.

(Those with any information pertaining to this incident or any unsolved crime are urged to contact the Conway Police Department at 450-6120. Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.)