The incident has been described as “hurtful,” “terrible” and “ridiculous” by members of the church. Police at the Blairmont and Fort Wellington Stations have since been informed but no arrests had been made up to late last evening.
Last Wednesday at about 6.15pm Life Spring commenced its crusade. Some time after 8.30pm that night two generators, speakers and other electrical items were secured in the church’s Lot 1 Bennett Dam, Rosignol building.
“The crusade finished at about 8.30 that night [last Wednesday] and a little after that we took in the speakers and other items and packed them in the Church… early Thursday morning when the pastor and other members returned for the 5am service the items were discovered missing,” the Church elder told Stabroek News last evening.
One 2000w generator, one 1000w generator, six speakers, an amplifier, a mixer and a pre-amp were stolen from the church some time before 9pm last Wednesday and 5am last Thursday. The items, according to the elder, were worth over $600,000.
As word of the robbery spread among the parishioners, the elder said, many expressed hurt. It was shocking, the elder said, to know that the church did its best to reach out to the community and do so many good things and there were those who would “violate the church this way.”
Some of the stolen items were not owned by the church. Life Spring had borrowed one the generators from a resident and the speakers from another church, the elder said.
“It’s a good thing the people understand the situation and they will understand if the items are not recovered,” the elder said.
However, despite the inconvenience caused by the robbery the Church refused to cancel its crusade. Life Spring again borrowed equipment from other churches ready to lend a hand.
“We were not going to call off the crusade,” the elder told Stabroek News, “because we started out to give praise to the Lord and we were not going to let anything get in our way.”
Following the robbery members of Life Spring Ministries questioned residents, the elder said, and were able to provide Blairmont police with the identity of a possible suspect. However, the church believes that this information was not taken seriously by the Blairmont Police Station neither was enough of an effort made to investigate the matter. The matter has since been reported to the Fort Wellington Police Station, which the elder said, was “doing a better job.”
In the view of the elder the intruder(s) could not have moved the heavy equipment without having a vehicle to transport it from the Church to another location.
“I believe that they came, broke into the Church and calmly fetch out things, packed it in their transportation and drove off with no one the wiser,” the elder said.
This is the third time the Bennett Dam arm of the Life Spring Ministries has been the victim of such a crime. About three years ago, the elder recalled, the church was broken into and electrical equipment was stolen.
Meanwhile, Stabroek News learnt that other churches in the area have also been robbed of similar items. Efforts made to contact a relevant police official for a comment proved futile.
