Crook caught on camera stealing from Jacksonville church

Hundreds of dollars’ worth of stuff was stolen from a Jacksonville church.

Surveillance video from New Life Baptist Church showed the man looking directly into the camera moments before the pastor said his shed was broken into.

"We couldn't see him at the shed, but we can see when the door was open and that was when he broke into it," Pastor Paul McCurdy said.

McCurdy said when he got to his church, he noticed his shed door was open.

"He actually broke this latch off and then he was in," McCurdy said.

Several tools were stolen, and he said he thinks his church was targeted.

“He knows what he's doing, he knew what he was doing that night. Apparently he already knew where that shed was," McCurdy said.

And since a woman who lives near the church had tools stolen from her house too, McCurdy believes it’s the same thief.

"I just think it's one thing he does, he's a thief and he goes around stealing," McCurdy said.

A neighbor told Action News Jax that several homes in the area have been broken into recently.

"Took all her furniture, TVs, computers, everything. They put a sign up, 'Be careful, someone's breaking in, we just lost everything,'" neighbor Troy Powell said.

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office crime-mapping tool, there were three burglaries, including the church, on the same street just blocks apart from each other this week.

"They are very bold to do it and they will keep right on doing it to target areas," Powell said.

But with the surveillance video and distinguishing marks on the man shown in it, McCurdy hopes police will be able to track him down.

"I just hope somebody recognizes him and we can catch him, get him off the street," McCurdy said.

The pastor said he just recently put up the surveillance cameras after other crimes happened here.

Cox Media Group