Virginia Beach, Va. - Emmanuel Episcopal Church Sunday was filled with the story of the Good Samaritan. Luke was being read, and parishioners were told to "go and do likewise."
But not everyone heard the message. Someone came in during the service and stole the entire day's donations.
"You know it's difficult. We're not a rich church," said Gale Nicholson with Emmanuel Episcopal. "We don't have a lot of deep pockets here and people give faithfully."
After the money had been collected, it was taken to another room.
A board member sorted the thousands of dollars in checks from the cash, and got the money ready to be deposited.
"He stepped away to get the bank bag and he heard the door slam," Nicholson said.
That's when the money was snatched. An insurance company is taking care of the checks.
Hopefully churchgoers will write Emmanuel Episcopal another batch so the church doesn't lose too much.
Typically it gets $100 in cash every Sunday. The woman who stole the money had been seen walking the halls, but no one suspected anything.
She struck at the 5 pm service Sunday after all the money had been taken in and knew exactly where the money was for the one minute it was left unattended.
"There had to have been some knowledge of what was going on to know to do that," Nicholson said.
