Detectives are searching for a man accused of stealing a cash box from a church in La Cañada-Flintridge, in addition to burglarizing two nearby vehicles.
During an afternoon graduation event on May 27, the man was accused of taking $200, a cash box and an envelope of checks from an unlocked office at St. Bede the Venerable Roman Catholic Church, said Detective Rodger Burt of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station. The man was also suspected of breaking into a church kitchen.
Surveillance footage showed the man carrying a plastic trash bin with the church cash box peeking out of it, and later throwing rocks at the windows of two cars in an adjacent parking lot owned by Flintridge Preparatory School, Burt said.
On Wednesday, the sheriff's station reported a diabetic kit, the car key to a Jaguar, credit cards, glasses and a wallet, license and cell phone were stolen from two vehicles.
A copy of a Visa card was also taken from one of the cars, but Burt said there’s been no activity on the card. Officials later found the missing cellphone in a residential backyard about a mile away from St. Bede.
"Coincidentally or not, the phone happened to be found in a residence right next to a church," Burt said.
Deputies described the man as bald, wearing square-rimmed glasses, a blue shirt and jeans, and blue shoes. He was described as 5-feet 8-inches to 5-feet 10-inches tall and weighing 230 to 250 pounds. His car is described as a white mid-2000s four-door Chevrolet Malibu.
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Burt said he has heard reports of a person of similar description being connected to other church robberies in the Orange County and Los Angeles County areas.
Officials ask that anyone with information about the suspect’s identity call Detective Burt at (818) 236-4014.
