Police in Hutchinson warn congregations to be on alert. Just a few months after authorities made arrests and closed the case on dozen church break-ins, there are three more just this week.
The most recent happened Wednesday night at the McGee Chapel, Church of God in Christ. It follows two previous break-ins.
Stacie Unruh does maintenance at First Presbyterian Church. She was working late Tuesday night when an alarm went off. At first, she thought it might have been a bird or a bat. It turns out that an intruder broke in through a window.
"He broke the window in this classroom and had to have come through this doorway, to here where the motion detectors sensed him," Unruh told Eyewitness News.
"I could hear him from the gym so he had to have taken these steps, one, two, three really quickly and he was out the door." Unruh chased the suspect down the street.
Unruh and another employee spent part of their Wednesday cleaning up the broken glass and the mess that was left behind.
Hutchinson police have not made an arrest in any of the cases. They're also not saying if the break-ins are connected.
Over the weekend, someone broke into the First Christian Church. During that burglary, the thief damaged furniture and stole donated cash.
In August, authorities arrested five people in connection with more than a dozen break-ins and burglaries of Hutchinson churches.
Police remind people that the best thing to do is call police rather than chasing after a suspect like Unruh did.
