SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Police Department is asking for the public’s help solving a burglary and vandalism at Bethel Church of Nazarene on the South Hill.
SPD responded to the scene early Friday morning. Officials said the suspect(s) got into the church through the basement window.
Jim Clifton, the senior pastor at the church, said a daycare employee showed up at 5:30 a.m and found a giant mess.
"They broke a window to get in, and then made themselves at home. They took some sausages out of the freezer, put them in the microwave, nuked them and ate them, ate some string cheese, drank some grape juice and then started moving throughout the church just throwing stuff around and breaking stuff," Clifton explained. "Our nursery, they tore doors off of hinges and broke some doors, they broke some personal items, they stole our youth pastor's guitar, they ripped the urinal off the wall, they tore the drinking fountain off, and they broke a sink, and then took a gallon of milk and smashed it against the wall, and got milk all over the place, so it was just a mess. They took some of our Easter decorations and just tossed them down the stairs, they took goldfish, the little baked goldfish out of the nursery, and they were munching on those and then took communion wafers and threw them all over the hallway, it was just really weird."
According to the release, there is an estimated $2,000 dollars in damages. A urinal and a drinking fountain were ripped off walls, among other damage done to the property.
A guitar, owned by the church youth pastor, was also stolen. Authorities describe the guitar as an “Alvarez guitar with a fisherman pickup installed. It also had a green floral design strap attached.” when Pastor Jim called to get the broken window fixed and he discovered they were not the only ones hit Thursday night.
"We were calling the glass places and they said last night a whole bunch of this happened, a couple of other churches, some businesses some person homes on the South Hill, so there's somebody out there or a group of somebody's out there and it is frustrating you know, but you take it in stride like you do everything else too," Clifton said.
Taking things in stride is something the church is unfortunately getting used to. They were also burglarized a few weeks ago.
"Three weeks ago while we were having service, someone came in the office door and came into my office and stole my keys, so we had to have all of the outside doors re-keyed and it had my truck key on it and the person broke into my truck and stole some things out of my truck as well," he said.
If you have information on this incident, SPD asks you to call Crime Check at 509-456-2233.
Pastor Jim said they are frustrated by what happened. The ironic part is if the person had just asked for help, the church would have been happy to give them what they needed.
