On this newscast we report on many types of crimes, but on particular days, there are some which shock even us. It's takes a special kind of criminal to rob a priest at gunpoint of the church's collection after mass, but that's exactly what happened last night at the St. Martin De Porres Parish.
Father Brian Christopher was walking with the cash collected that night from the church to the main office when 2 men ambushed him at gun point. Today, he explained to Daniel Ortiz what happened next:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
2 men, missing a conscience, conducted a calculated attack on a Catholic priest to rob him of the Church's offerings last night after Mass.
Father Brian Christopher - Assistant Pastor, St. Martins Parish
"It was at the end of mass, it was about 20 minutes to 9 and we were clearing up and parishioners were starting to leave and I was leaving the church through the side door here walking the 30 feet to the parish office and I had the collection basket in my hand. As I was walking up I saw two guys here just by the gate, I didn't think much of it because parishioners hang out or whatever."
But those 2 guys weren't parishioners. They were armed robbers who had their eyes on the collection basket.
Father Brian Christopher - Assistant Pastor, St. Martins Parish
"Getting to the door and I was just about to open the door and this hands comes out of nowhere and smacks the basket out of my hand and then I turned around and he had a gun, so I just started saying "take it, its yours." He and his friend just running around trying to pick up as much as they could from the ground and he was waving his gun around saying "everybody get back." Father Mat, the pastor was 15 feet behind me talking to another parishioner, so they saw it all happen. Panic is good word [laughing]. Panic is definitely a good word. The first thought that went through my head is "come on, this isn't fair, I am only here in Belize another few weeks, come on." And then the second thought that went through my head was " my God, this could be it." So that panic was there and still is here today. I still feel shaken by this."
The amount of money is not known at this time because no official count was done. The estimate of the money that the men got away with is close to a thousand dollars.
Father Brian Christopher
"It's hard to say. Usually our Sunday collection is close to a thousand. That can vary and I don't know how much was cash and how much was personal cheques."
Word to 7News is that the men may have been running surveillance on the church for at least 2 Sundays to see how the money is moved.
Police may have to follow up on that lead, but last night in the service, the men's presence in the church service last night sent out waves of concern.
Father Brian Christopher
"I really don't know for sure. I know that some of our parish staff notice these same 2 guys coming in towards the end of the mass. They look suspicious and one of them said something suspicious, but I don't really know what that was. At the end of the mass they were sure to secure the collection basket, so whether their intent was to steal it right out of the church, I don't know. But we secure the collection basket in the church and then when I was leaving I took the collection basket and was bringing it over and they were waiting for me here, so were they casing it? Probably."
Luckily, no one was hurt, but the Brazenness of the attack is astounding. Father Christopher says that is shows that St. Martin De Porrres is at the right location to help in the fight of the moral decay happening in its midst.
Father Brian Christopher
"The money that they are stealing, its not my salary that they are stealing. They are stealing the money that we use for these kids to here; the money that we use to pay teachers salaries, the money that we use for our outreach services that we do here at the parish. In some sense, they are stealing from the neighborhood. They are not stealing our money, they are stealing the neighborhood's money and that is sad, that is pathetic. But desperate people do desperate things and I think the big learning is what is this say about what we are doing and the kind of work that we need to do here at St. Martins. St. Martins is a parish, we don't just do Sunday mass, we got all kinds of services going on; we got a primary school, we got St. Vincent de Paul Society giving out food, we got an NGO that's affiliate with the parish that does job training and job placement called CCRD. This is the work that we do and I think this is just a reminder that first of all St. Martins is in the right place, we are doing the right kind of work and we got to step it up."
Father Brian told us almost exactly 2 years ago, thieves burglarized the St. Martins rectory.
