Thieves that broke into a Hollister church this week stole
nearly $1,800 in cash and checks along with a sound system and a
boom box, leaving the pastor of Iglesia Bautista Church wondering
how someone would be so brazen.
By Adam Breen – Pinnacle Staff Writer
Thieves that broke into a Hollister church this week stole nearly $1,800 in cash and checks along with a sound system and a boom box, leaving the pastor of Iglesia Bautista Church wondering how someone would be so brazen.
Abel Contreras, who has run the modest church at 626 Sixth St. for nine years, said a thief or thieves broke a kitchen window to gain entry to the church, which reported the crime Wednesday.
“I was hoping that we were dreaming,” when he and about a dozen parishioners opened the door to the church this week to discover that the sound system was missing, Contreras said. “We started seeing that we were missing items and I told people that we’re going to call the police and make a report. That’s a call to us that we need an alarm system.”
The thief or thieves destroyed a locked cabinet and stole approximately $900 in cash and check offerings, $850 from the women’s group fund and $45 from a special fund, Contreras said. The missing sound system, mixer, boom box and microphones are valued at approximately $1,600.
Asked how he shared the news with the congregation, Contreras said “I have to prepare the people that we live in difficult times and we have to be careful. It’s really hard. We know that anything can happen now.
“We’re not rich people,” the pastor said of his church members, which total between 40 and 60 at services. “We don’t have a lot of money.”
Contreras said neighbors around the church, located on the block between Sacred Heart School and Dunne Park, said they did not notice any suspicious activity or people around Iglesia Bautista this week.
The pastor said that despite the actions of the thieves, he is encouraging his flock to “pray for these kind of people, that they don’t do that again.”
A Hollister Police Department spokeswoman Thursday said the initial report had not been submitted.
