While Toppenish United Methodist Church members were preparing and serving Christmas dinner to those less fortunate on Christmas Day, thieves were also preparing a break-in at the local congregation on Beech Street. According to church pastor Darel Olson, the thieves took more than $10,000 in computers and musical equipment. The break-in is also disheartening to church members – it is the third time in the past year and a half the church had been robbed.
Olson discovered the theft early on Dec. 26, after coming to the church to prepare for an early morning Bible study.
“I came in early that morning to set up and prepare for a Saturday morning Bible session,” said Olson, who has served as pastor for the congregation for four years. “Initially, I noticed a DVD player in my office wasn’t there, but I thought maybe I had put it someplace else.”
Olson went to the basement to make coffee and when he returned to his office to send an e-mail, he discovered his computer was also missing. A check of the church sanctuary revealed four guitars plus amps, cables and a sound system were also missing.
According to longtime church member Marvilena Bennett, discovering the robbery was a time of great sadness for the small congregation.
“Christmas is a wonderful time of the years,” Bennett said. “We gathered for Christmas Eve service and then helped serve a meal at the Food Bank on Christmas Day. It was a time of great sadness as we discovered the church had been broken in.”
A majority of the sound equipment was owned and used by the church’s Hispanic congregation.
The Toppenish United Methodist Church has English service on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. with a Spanish service at 1 p.m.
“They bought them (the musical equipment) as they found the money and shopped for good prices,” Bennet said. “I feel really badly for them. They really saved for this.”
“Our sanctuary was covered with guitars and amps, and now it is covered with nothing,” Olson added.
According to Olson, church members are most disheartened by the third break-in. The first two times, the dollar loss was just under the insurance liability deductible, so church members had pay to replace the loss on their own. This time, the $10,700 loss will be covered by insurance, but it doesn’t lighten their hearts.
“It is a sadness for us,” Olson said. “With all the churches and people who reach out to the community, and then this happens.”
In addition to the church break-in, a member of the congregation also had a home broken into on Christmas Eve.
The $10,700 loss at the church includes a desktop computer, a lap top computer, a voice recorder, an MPS player, a calculator, DVD player and modem.
Olson said after the second theft, church members began great diligence in keeping doors and windows locked and secured. However, police officers believe the thieves forced open an office window in the pastor’s study to gain entry to the building. Once inside, they left through a door that was secured from the inside.
The congregation wants to get the word out to others in hopes that their loss will be a warning who may be able to avoid becoming a victim.
“We want others out there to know what has happened to us,” Olson said about the third incident. “If we are going to build a safe community, we need to communicate with one another in both good times and bad.”
Anyone with information on the case can contact the Toppenish Police Department at (509) 865-4355.