Another church theft — this one in North Ridgeville

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — For the second time in less than a week, thieves broke into an area church and stole money.

The latest theft occurred at First Congregational United Church of Christ on Center Ridge Road, where someone smashed through the window in a rear sub-basement level door leading to a large room outside the church kitchen.

KRISTIN BAUER / CHRONICLE
First Congregational United Church of Christ was broken into last night, the windows on the Pastor’s office were smashed by a fire extinguisher that was inside of the building.

The overnight theft was discovered by the church’s pastor, the Rev. Arik Borstad, when he arrived at the church about 8:15 a.m. Thursday, according to Pete Veliconia, a church trustee.

“There was glass across the entire floor,” Veliconia said as he made a sweeping motion with his hand to show the extent of the basement concrete floor that had been covered with broken glass.

Police said they think a fire extinguisher from the building was used to shatter the door’s window.

Police Sgt. Matt Gorski said the theft was the first break-in of a North Ridgeville church in recent memory.

“This is out of the ordinary for us,” Gorski said.

Police have no suspects in the case and had not picked up any prints relating to the break-in.

North Ridgeville detectives plan to check with Elyria police to see whether there was any connection between the First Congregational church theft and the one that happened at Washington Avenue Christian Church earlier in the week. There, a glass donation jar containing close to $1,000 was taken from a church office.

The North Ridgeville church sustained more damage than theft of money or anything else, according to Veliconia.

“We’re not sure if they went into the sanctuary or not,” he said.

After entering the church through a rear downstairs door that faces a parking lot, the thief or thieves made their way upstairs where they kicked in the office door of a church secretary and broke out a portion of a window in the door of Borstad’s study.

Church personnel thought money was the chief objective as there were no obvious signs of anything being disturbed or damaged in the church.

“It appears the only thing they took, besides some $5 in change from a jar, was a small safe,” Veliconia said.

The safe was believed to contain about $50, Veliconia said.

“Here we are in what we think is safe North Ridgeville, but this just shows no place is 100 percent safe these days,” Veliconia said.

Last fall, the North Ridgeville church had a storage shed broken into last fall and a lawn tractor was taken. Gorski said police eventually located and charged the individuals responsible for that theft.

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