By JOSEPH KELLARD
Tim Kirkwood, St. Anthony¹s facilities director, said the main concern is to keep parishioners safe, particularly elderly church-goers who frequent the church to pray when it is empty during the day. ³We¹re afraid now,² Kirkwood said, ³that this guy is so desperate to do what he does, when he¹s obviously carrying tools with him, that this can become dangerous and he¹ll start hitting some of the older women who come here.²
During one break-in, on June 19, a custodian who opened the church around 7:30 a.m., confronted and chased the intruder. ³[The custodian] came in through the back end of the church, turned on the lights, heard footsteps, and opened the door to the altar,² said Kirkwood. ³And then he looked out and saw the guy running down a side aisle and out a side exit, where he had climbed through a window.²
Once outside, the intruder ran toward the back of the church and along Mahland Place, Kirkwood said. The custodian described the burglar as a Hispanic male in his late teens or early 20s, about 5-feet-10, with a thin build, thinly-trimmed goatee and wearing a dark blue baseball hat and blue jeans.
Church leaders noticed a pattern of larcenies develop inside the main church on June 5. Twice in May, someone broke into the chapel, shattered the glass on two poor boxes inside and took two golden candlestick holders. Officials did not report the incident since a small amount of money was taken, and because the church has experienced similar but separate incidents on occasion, Kirkwood said.
³But then it was happening more and more frequently in the church,² Kirkwood said. ³So on Friday, June 23, we called in the police because by that point, we had had about four break-ins in the previous two weeks.²
Kirkwood said that on June 5, during the first break-in at the church, the burglar pried open a window and climbed inside the building. But during each break-in after that, he broke the glass of a side window, toward the front of the church, and turned the inside handle to open the window and climb in.
After the police were called to investigate on June 23, the burglar broke in the following two nights. ³After last Saturday night, a custodian taped up cardboard on one of the windows he broke, and [the burglar] punched that out,² Kirkwood said.
The five poor boxes inside the main church are made of brass or copper, and most have cylinder locks on plated doors and are mounted on the walls. Kirkwood said that on two of the boxes the burglar may have used a vice grip or pliers to force open the locks. He pried one box off the wall, and used bolt cutters to open a Master padlock on another ‹ a tall, upright and heavy box that stands on the floor near a rear door.
³There was another box that was his nemesis, that he couldn¹t seem to get into,² Kirkwood said. ³He was only able to crack some pieces from it on Saturday morning [June 24].²
Kirkwood believes the intruder is also playing with the minds of church officials. Last Sunday, he said, a custodian found two pieces that the burglar had broken from one poor box and had placed on the window sill near where he climbs in.
³Then when we came in on Monday [June 26], he had taken the two pieces on the window sill and propped them back into place in the poor box,² Kirkwood said. ³He¹s now flat out playing with us, just to show that he can come and go as he pleases.²
Fourth Precinct detectives declined to discuss details of the ongoing investigation. Rev. Carsten Martensen is traveling and unavailable for comment, and the church declined to reveal how much money thus far has been stolen from the poor boxes. The donated money goes to the St. Vincent de Paul Society to fund its outreach programs for the poor.
Since the latest break-ins, church leaders have posted signs over the poor box slots, asking that the donations be made in the church¹s office or in collection baskets during Sunday masses.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
