By JOSEPH KELLARD
Elvi Rodriguez, 23, of Kenneth Place in Oceanside, was arrested and charged with third-degree burglary after he dropped his wallet in the church¹s sacristy while searching for valuables and attempting to remove cash from empty collection poor boxes following an afternoon mass July 9.
Rodriguez is also a suspect in about 10 larcenies at the Oceanside parish over the past three months in which the main church and chapel were broken into, the poor boxes looted and other items stolen, police said.
³There was some hard identification in his wallet that led us to his home,² said Detective Sgt. Ronald Nesbitt of the 4th Squad. ³We had an idea that he had some involvement, given the investigation that we opened relative to these incidents.²
Nesbitt noted that Rodriguez was a suspect during the course of detectives¹ investigation into the earlier string of larcenies, and that the wallet was ³the final piece² that led them to his home, next to the church property, where he lives with his mother. ³Given the M.O., he¹s probably the most likely person,² Nesbitt said.
When police went to Rodriguez¹s home, they found burglary tools but no property from the church, such as a poor box, or any money, Nesbitt added.
Rodriguez was charged with burglary because his wallet was found in a part of the church that is off limits to all personnel except those with special access.
Tim Kirkwood, St. Anthony¹s facilities director, found the wallet inside the sacristy. ³I was just doing a routine check of the church and I saw it on the floor,² Kirkwood said.
Asked what police suspect was Rodriguez¹s motive for looting the church, Nesbitt said, ³Money, because he¹s unemployed.²
The total amount of money he is suspected of having taken remains under investigation.
Kirkwood said that church leaders noticed a pattern of larcenies developing in the main church on June 5, after someone broke into the adjacent chapel, shattered two glass poor boxes and took two candlestick holders in May.
In one incident, a custodian who opened the church around 7:30 a.m. on June 19 confronted and chased an intruder, who escaped by way of a rear door near a window through which he had entered. The subject, described by the custodian as a Hispanic male in his late teens or early 20s, about 5 feet 10 with a thin build and a thinly trimmed goatee, ran toward the back of the church to Mahland Place.
In most of the break-ins, the subject climbed through a window he broke and turned the handle to open it. After the police were called to investigate on June 23, the burglar came back the following two nights to break open some of the church¹s five poor boxes, which are made of copper or brass and have plated doors and cylinder locks that are mounted on the walls. Kirkwood said that the suspect used a vice grip or pliers to force open the locks, and pried one box off the wall and used bolt cutters to open a Master padlock on another.
After the last few break-ins, the church posted signs over the slots in the boxes asking parishioners to bring their donations to the church¹s office. From that point on there were no other break-ins, Kirkwood said.
Patrick Sullivan, associate pastor at St. Anthony¹s Church, said that surveillance cameras and burglar alarms are being installed in the church. ³We¹re trying to secure the building so that our parishioners will feel safe there anytime,² he said. ³The church is always open during the day, so we want people to feel comfortable to come to mass and pray and for other services.²
Asked to comment on the larcenies and burglary, Sullivan said, ³It was unfortunate that anyone would steal money from the church, because the people give the money to the poor. ... Another very, very important aspect of this is that this individual get help now, so that he can turn his life around, we hope, and become a better person because of it. ³
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
