Churches which are supposed to be sacred to the majority of people have again become an attraction to the criminal minded individuals who hide under the cloak of seeking God to ply their evil trade.
This was brought to the fore last Sunday at a Pentecostal church (name withheld)on Stadium Road axis when a strange fellow reportedly stole Smartphone from a choir member who was said to have vacated her seat after the service just as she continued to charge her phone by the power switch close to the choir row.
According to available information, this is not the first time a theft of this nature had been recorded in the church, but after a series of internal announcement made within the congregation for church members to be on their guards and ensure they took care of whatever they went to church with, we gathered that the trend ceased for a while until the recently recorded incident.
Confirming the incident, though in confidence, the head of the church security Obioma Charles ,pointed out that the alleged perpetrator of the criminal act did not leave anyone with a clue what his mission was initially until he succeeded in hatching it.
But he explained that mastermind of the phone theft used to come to the church in company of other suspicious boys. According to Obioma, he used to keep an eye on the movement of the alleged phone thief and his group,, until he started coming alone without others,an action he reasoned could make him look like a serious minded person.
The security guard however regretted that on the fateful day, when the criminal was making his entry into the church, he asked him for a phone charger as decor to perfect his stratagem.
Obioma, explaining further stated that: “I told him that I don’t have a charger only for the guy to wait patiently to have access to a smartphone lying on the floor without the owner around.
“I was later to understand that, immediately the guy picked someone else’s phone he made straight for the gate, pretending to be making a call. He also left his faulty phone as a replacement for the one he took. When I later heard that the owner of the lost phone was crying for her loss, I went inside and saw the phone the guy had shown me he wanted to charge only to discovery that the phone isn’t working”
He concluded that,” many take personal effects for granted because they assume the environment is safe and they ignore things around.”
Reacting to the development, pastor of the church was said to have warned anyone with negative intention to steer clear as he would take necessary actions including cursing such soul for not regarding God in their activities.
