Gifts for poor stolen, church vandalized in Paterson

PATERSON, N.J. (WABC) -- There have been a rash of collection box rip-offs at churches this year, but one in Paterson, New Jersey is especially infuriating.

The donations came from people who have very little money, yet still give to others.

At Our Lady of Victories, they embrace the mission.

"If you come in the front door, we'll feed them," said Rev. Benjamin Williams, the pastor.

Not everyone comes in the front.

"These guys must have been pretty big, because they smashed it," Williams said.

Late Sunday, thieves broke a window and then pried open the big steel door that leads into the church.

"They used some kind of crow bar," Williams said.

The thieves took blunt steel tools to doors that have stood for 60 years and will cost hundreds to replace, breaking windows too as they went. And when they made it to the sanctuary, they knew right where to go.

"All they took after ransacking all of that, thousands of dollars in damage, was the gifts to the poor," Williams said.

They were gifts to the needy from the needy. Our Lady of Victories is an urban parish; its congregants are themselves of modest means. But they come to church and they donate to those even less fortunate. The donations there are hard earned dollars, precious dollars, and people dug deep into empty pockets. And that money is just the start.

"$8,300 for $23 of copper," Williams said.

Fr. Benjamin says the air conditioner is surrounded in fencing now because thieves kept stealing the copper tubing. It costs thousands to replace and, "If the two compressors go, those are the two motors, it goes from $8,300 for the Freon is over $6,000 by itself, then it goes to $30,000 if the two motors are burned out."

Nearby, Our Lady of Lourdes has also been robbed recently, as have other churches. Police are investigating the break-ins. It makes being a pastor tough. But Fr. Benjamin knows just what he'll say if he meets the men who stole from him.

"First, I forgive you," Williams said.