Theft-Part 2

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Here’s another stupid crook story:

Soon after we moved to Florida, we joined the church where we worship now.  And not only that, but soon after that (six months after, actually), I became the church secretary.

The following year, we called a new Minister of Music to our church.

Rick

He had been with us for a few years when, one day I went from my office over to the Sanctuary for something.  In the process of looking around the Sanctuary, I noticed that all of our sound equipment was gone from the sound booth. My assumption was that Rick had sent it out for repair or something.

The new sound booth

I went back to my office and just carried on with my work.  Later in the day, I mentioned something to Rick about the sound equipment, and he looked at me like I had two heads.  So we tromped over to the Sanctuary and again, he stood there with his mouth agape at the sight.  He had no idea what had happened.

All this happened while our church was having it’s “Mom’s Day Out.”  Mom’s would leave their children for a few hours, so they could have some “me time” and know their children were in a safe place.  There was coming-and-going all that morning.  No one saw anything.

You must understand – those were the days when the church buildings were left unlocked, in case someone needed or wanted to go in for some quiet time with the Lord.

Well, as you might think, Rick called the police and was assigned a detective to the case.  Rick also called the company where most of the equipment had been purchased, to get some kind of value on it, for our insurance purposes. We had the serial numbers from all the equipment.  The owner told him, “I think I have your equipment here.  A man brought it in to sell it to me.”  In order to do that, they took a photocopy of his driver’s license and he had to leave a thumb print!

Credit Google Search and WeLoveSolo/Mark Vector Graphic

Stupid crook, hmmm?

Not too many days later, I answered the church phone to a man who literally whispered to me – “The guy who stole your church’s sound equipment is here right now wanting to sell more to me.”  I asked him if he could keep the guy there while we called the police.  He agreed.  We did so, and they were able to arrest him.  He had robbed another church of its sound equipment, and was intending to sell it for cash.

Really stupid crook!

When he went to trial for the theft of our equipment, his only comment was: “Well, the doors were unlocked.”

I was appalled!  So just because the doors were unlocked, that gave him permission to steal from the church?  As I told Rick – no one ever went into the Sanctuary without checking with the church office first!  Even if they were going there to spend time with the Lord and pray – they ALWAYS checked in with the church office first.  

Well, this hasn’t been such a happy post, but it is a memory that affected me.  Unfortunately, since that time, the Sanctuary is ALWAYS locked.  People are still able to go into the Sanctuary for quiet time, but the church secretary or one of the pastors escorts them over and unlocks the door for them.  All the doors have panic bars on the inside, so they can leave whenever they want – but they have to be unlocked with a key to get in.

Such a pity that our world has come to this.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years