A thief in the night

A couple of years ago, a thief broke into Crestway Baptist Church in Birmingham, stole two public-address system speakers, then stole a Cadillac in the area to serve as his getaway car.
   
“It was actually a little funny to us because he worked real hard to carry these heavy, cheap speakers out, but he walked right by the expensive lapel mikes,” said Jim Dixon, minister of education and administration for Crestway. “Unfortunately for him, the Cadillac had the OnStar system and the police got him.”
   
The church got its speakers back, but more items from the church have also been taken that have never been recovered.
   
“We’ve had problems with our lawnmowers being stolen,” Dixon said. “It happened several times.”
  
Dixon said the worst incident at the church occurred last year when one of the elderly members was robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot before Sunday School.
   
“He took her purse and then pushed her down and she broke her hip,” Dixon said. “After that we implemented a security team of volunteers who patrol outside the church during times when people are present at church.”
   
Dixon said a lot of criminals think a church is an easy target, but Crestway has reacted to the theft problem. “Now we have cameras, monitors, motion detectors, panic buttons and silent alarms,” he said.  “A couple of the employees are armed, too.”
   
Jim Swedenburg, coordinator of annuity and insurance services at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said that burglary and break-ins are the most common theft problems for churches and that it happens everywhere.
   
“There’s no distinguishing pattern between large, small, urban or rural churches or denominational affiliation regarding theft,” he said. “If a church hasn’t been hit, there’s a good chance it will be. Few have been spared.”
   
Swedenburg said targeted items include: cars, office equipment, cash and jewelry. “The best thing for a church to do to reduce crime is to spend money on good lighting and locks,” he said. “The lighting should cover every angle of the property. This type of lighting really isn’t that expensive anymore.” 
   
“The industry standard is that the lighting around the outside of the church building should be bright enough to be able to read a newspaper by,” said Skip Roberts, vice president of marketing at Byars and Associates in Jasper, who serves as a representative of insurance agencies to churches.
   
Swedenburg also said churches should get rid of hollow core doors, opting instead for solid wood or metal clad — ones that are harder to break down.
   
“Churches also need to have perimeter control and decide who gets to come inside,” he said. “A lot of times one staff member is left alone to deal with whatever comes, and this is another big issue.”
   
Both Swedenburg and Roberts instruct churches on having sufficient property and casualty insurance coverage for when such unfortunate events occur.  “Insurers want to see facilities with values over $3 million have security systems installed,” Roberts said. “Theft continues to be a problem, but more church leaders are becoming aware of risk management — things to do to protect their property.”
   
“General contractors, builders and architects are also becoming more attuned, and now churches are built with safety measures included from the start,” Roberts said.
   
Swedenburg said no official data has been collected on who is committing these thefts — whether it’s people who are church members, church staff or outsiders.
   
But theft isn’t only happening from the outside. 
   
“Not a single Sunday passes where someone doesn’t steal from the offering plate in churches in Alabama,” he said. “Never a month passes that we don’t hear about embezzlement in an Alabama church.”
   
He said most churches choose not to prosecute or make the theft publicized. “More than half the time they are able to persuade the person who has stolen to repay the church,” he said. “Sometimes they are trying to protect the confidentiality of the person — they can be forgiven, stay in the church and be productive. They just don’t need to have opportunity to be around money.”
   
Swedenburg said he’s noticed some by-products of such crimes.
   
“For the victim, whether it’s the church, staff members, whoever, when their sense of space is broken into, it leaves a feeling of violation and often it leads to depression,” he said. “They feel that there’s no place that’s truly safe. But these feelings can be dealt with.”
   
Another by-product, according to Swedenburg, is churches being pushed away from outreach.
   
“We encourage churches to continue to be careful, but our command is clear: We must reach the world for Christ,” he said. “In Matthew 10:16, Jesus tells us to be wise as serpents but innocent as doves. The Lord knew long before we did that this type of stuff would happen.”