Church vandalized third time in 3 months

Police say vandals caused $10,000 to $15,000 worth of damage to Garland Avenue Alliance Church in a break-in discovered Thursday morning.

It was the latest of three increasingly destructive burglaries within three months at the church at 2011 W. Garland Ave. All are believed to have been committed by the same youths.

“There are a lot of similarities,” police Cpl. Jon Strickland said, citing entry through the same window, flinging food from the church kitchen and turning crosses upside down.

But damage in the latest incident, sometime between 8 p.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday, was far greater than in previous break-ins in late November and on Jan. 1.

Eight to 10 doors and some wooden podiums were kicked in, walls and floors were spray-painted, and the contents of several rooms – including copious quantities of messy food – were turned into great piles of debris. A copier valued at $4,000 was smashed and spray-painted, Strickland said.

“Any door that was locked got kicked in,” said Laurie Amonson, the church’s ministry assistant.

“This is one of the worst malicious mischief things I have seen in quite a long time,” said Strickland, who has 30 years of military and civilian police experience. “I was quite taken aback by it.”

Still, Amonson said, “We can say that we are blessed. There are areas where it could have been worse and, thank the Lord, they left them alone.”

In particular, Amonson said, the church’s combination gymnasium-sanctuary was relatively untouched. She said services will be conducted as usual on Sunday, although volunteer cleanup crews may not have the trashed kitchen and fellowship room restored in time for a spaghetti benefit luncheon later Sunday.

If the fundraiser is canceled, it will be the second time the church’s high school youth group has been victimized by the burglars. The proceeds from a New Year’s Eve fundraising dinner for the youth group were stolen.

In that case, Amonson said, an obscurely located cash box was taken, suggesting a knowledge of the church. That’s possible, but the burglars may have been in the building so long that they simply stumbled upon the cash box, Strickland said.

Amonson said food was flung around in the January burglary, but there was much less damage than this week. And there was hardly any vandalism in the November break-in, in which the burglars took soft drinks and candy from the youth cafe.

Despite the cash box theft, the burglars have shown little interest in theft, Amonson said. She noted that they gave up Thursday on trying to steal a sound-system computer and abandoned a pair of speakers at the window where they apparently exited as well as entered.

“I don’t know if they got spooked or started wondering, ‘What am I going to do with them if I take them? If I take them home, my parents will catch me with them,’ ” Strickland said.

Church leaders are discussing strategies for improving security, including putting bars on the burglars’ favorite window if fire codes permit, Amonson said.

Strickland said some of the graffiti left on walls and floors Thursday appeared “gang-like,” and will be referred to the police gang unit for analysis.

The graffiti included an anarchist symbol, references to the Antichrist, obscene comments about “polece” and “which hunters,” and a statement spray-painted onto a carpet that, “I floored this room.”

“Doesn’t make any sense, does it?” Amonson mused.

Actually, Strickland said, the misspelled and inscrutable messages may come from a music video. He planned to ask some younger officers about that.

Meanwhile, Strickland said he hopes to hear from neighbors or passersby who may have seen something, “but didn’t put two and two together at the time.” He asked anyone with information about the burglaries to call (509) 242-TIPS.