Pocono News Section

Burglar Strikes Church in Luzerne County

Burglar Strikes Church in Luzerne County - Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 2:56PM EST

Reported by: Jeff Chirico
Sunday, Dec 27, 2009 @ 02:56pm EST
PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY --During one of the most holy weeks of the year, someone broke into a church in Luzerne County. As Eyewitness News reporter Jeff Chirico tells us the burglar didn't steal much except the congregation's sense of security.

As church-goers arrived at the First Baptist Church in Pittston to worship, what they found shattered their congregation's peace. "It saddens me that that would even happen," says pastor James Breese shows Eyewitness News where someone broke into the church's kitchen through a window Saturday or Sunday morning. “Glass all over. Stepped onto stove to get in." The burglar left a footprint and some very visible finger prints.

But Breese is confused, "it really doesn't make sense." …by what happened next. "only thing taken that we understand was a phone." A telephone from this countertop.

Ethel Oriel says "it's ridiculous. If somebody needed a phone we would have given them one. Why break into a church?" It is just a phone. But members say the crook also took their sense of security. "Nothing is sacred to people anymore if a church can't be left alone, what is sacred to somebody.

Breese isn't sure who did it --but assumes it's likely an addict who will do anything for his next fix. "These are the things addictions make them do because they're not fully aware or doesn't matter to them anymore."

Worshipers are grateful no one was hurt and that the burglar didn't break one of the church's priceless stained glass windows. "

The pastor says they will now install sturdier doors and windows to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

State police investigators processed the scene to see if there's anyway to track down the culprit from those finger prints.