With the executive orders from our governor restricting gatherings to 10 and under, and the church’s desire to be a responsible community partner, most churches have gone to an online format. That being said, some churches became the target of thieves stealing catalytic converters off of church vans. The church that I pastor became one of those victims, Tuesday, April 7. My wife and I had to go up to the church to get some meat out of the freezer for our curbside community dinner. I had not started the Ford van in a while, so I told my wife that I was going up to start it. When I started it, I thought that I had blown a hole in the muffler. Then I decided to put the banner up, letting people know about our curbside dinner the following Monday. So that you can keep up with me, this is Thursday, April 9. While putting the banner up, I meet a young man named Eric. Keep in mind, we just went up to take some meat out of the freezer. Eric tells me, “I need help.” In case you wonder, I hear that a lot in my ministry area. Eric needed lunch and a ride to Petersburg. With social distancing in mind, I decided to put Eric in the back seat of the other van, since the blue van had a “muffler” problem. Well, I started the Chevrolet van, only to find that it sounded just like the blue van. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Eric and I figured out that this van had a problem, too. I crawled under the Chevy and found that the catalytic converter had been cleanly cut off and stolen. At this point, I told Eric that we wouldn’t be traveling in a church van, and then I told my wife, who was going to follow me to Petersburg, that she needed to call the police while I took Eric to Petersburg in my truck. Just so you know, I talked to Eric about Jesus, while Eric told me all the reasons that I should not be calling the police about our stolen catalytic converters.
After I returned from Petersburg, my wife was talking with a Chesterfield police officer when I got to the church. Just before I turned into the church parking lot, a Chevrolet pickup pulled into the Colbrook Motel lot, which is now a heap of rubble. My wife saw her putting cinder blocks in her truck. I joined the conversation with the police officer. He asked, when was the last time that we knew that the vans were started? Believe it or not, we had to start the Chevrolet van on Sunday before, and it was fine. Once he told me what he needed from me, the police officer was about to leave. The next thing you know is that the lady in the pickup drives over to the church. She said, “I just want to know if I am doing something wrong?” The police officer says, “what are you doing?” She said, “I am getting bricks.” Her next statement was mind boggling. She said, “I just thought that he, meaning me, had called the police on her.” Keep in mind, I pulled into the church parking lot right after she pulled into the Colbrook lot. A guilty conscience is a powerful thing.
I had the timeframe narrowed down to Sunday, April 5, at about 7 p.m., to Thursday, April 9, at 11:30 a.m. Little did I know what scanning video footage would mean. We began by looking at the nighttime footage for that period of time. That night, I returned to the church, spending another four hours reviewing camera footage. Again, I concentrated on the nighttime footage. After a while it hit me: I’m on the pike, and this could have been done in the middle of the day. I began to look at daylight footage, and wouldn’t you know it. At 3:07 p.m., on Tuesday, April 7, the camera picked up a white male who came from the Colbrook, went under the Chevy first and left from between the two vans in the front. He then walked right back to the Colbrook lot. In broad daylight, he stole our catalytic converters and walked right to the Colbrook, toting them. People may have even seen this guy and never gave it a thought. In case you wondered, it took six hours to find five minutes worth of footage.
When I talked with Chesterfield police the next day, the detective informed me that this was a well-organized crime ring. This group had hit many different businesses and individuals. In fact, he even knew names. I had posted my story on Facebook. That same night, a church member posted pictures of three male subjects that were being sought by law enforcement for the theft of catalytic converters. There has been an interesting development in this case, but I will wait for further info to come out. Here we all are in the midst of a pandemic and people are doing things like this. A few years ago thieves stole our air conditioning units. Another time, it was two electric guitars. Now this. We will continue to love Chester and share the hope found in Jesus, while dealing with the ills of our society.
