Churches, beware of thieves.
A rash of break-ins and burglaries of Baltimore County churches over the past few weeks has left congregants anxious and police baffled but pastors forgiving.
"Folks are very afraid," said Edward Campbell, a 65-year-old Cockeysville resident who was appalled that the church he attends, Epworth United Methodist, had been burglarized during the night of July 17. It was one of eight churches in the area and one parish house known to have been struck by thieves since the end of June.
"When they start robbing a church, you know they've been robbing other places already," Campbell said. "What kinds of folks do we have here now?"
Little of significance was taken and none of the churches was desecrated, although there remains a pervasive sense that robbing a place of worship is beyond the pale.
"It's a sign of the times, unfortunately, that people don't have respect for things that are holy," said Rev. Kimberly Hall, lead pastor at Epworth, where she led the congregation in a prayer for whomever had broken into the church's office. "There's no sense of anger here, but we do want to pray for these individuals. Obviously, there's something missing."
The thieves got away from Hall's church with $40 in petty cash as well as a heavy safe. "They probably thought, 'Wow, jackpot,' " she said. "But there was nothing in it."
The Rev. Ray Deal, pastor of Cockeysville Baptist Church, said there is "a lot of drug-dealing" in the area, especially on Cranbrook Road a couple of blocks from the sanctuary. "When you bring that into it, you have people who are desperate for cash," he said. "But a church is probably not the best place to look for cash."
At Cockeysville Baptist, the burglar entered through a window and took an undisclosed amount of cash.
"In a lot of South American countries, people would never steal from a church," Deal said. "I've talked to people from down there who were surprised that Americans are more callous about doing something like that."
Clergymembers said they had taken steps to improve security, including in at least one case making plans to install an alarm system. A spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department said there are no suspects in the burglaries and only a few leads.
