Ryan Carter
Two local churches have less to rejoice after being part of a
string of burglaries at houses of worship.
"It's unusual to have three church burglaries in a week and a half
-- very rare," Police Lt. Kevin Krafft said.
Police Lt. Bill Taylor said he couldn't remember the last time a
church was burglarized in the city. Usually, crimes that involve
churches are connected with vandalism, not burglaries, he said.
On Nov. 18, a parishioner walked into the youth worship hall at
Bethany Korean Church, 2401 N. Brighton St., to find four guitars
missing from a stage. The instruments were worth about $1,500, police
said.
"I've been here for two years, and even from before that, I don't
think anything like this has ever happened," said David Kong, the
associate pastor at Bethany Korean Church. "I guess we didn't expect
this. But from this point on, we need to be more careful about
security."
Kong said the stolen gui- tars, which belong to the church youth
group, were inside the church's educa- tion building. The youth group
has to get by with one guitar. Kong said the church will try to raise
half of the money for new guitars while the youth group hopes to
raise the rest.
St. Finbar Catholic Church was the target of burglars twice.
Between Nov. 17 and Nov. 19, musical equipment, including amplifiers,
was stolen, and the church was reportedly broken into again sometime
between Nov. 21 and Nov. 22, but nothing else was taken.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Burbank Police watch
commander at 238-3130.
