Less than two weeks before Christmas, thieves stole or destroyed just about anything that wasn’t nailed down – and a lot of things that were, like copper pipe and wiring – and left a little DeKalb County church reeling.
Wednesday night, members of the Kingdom City Church at 5419 Rockbridge Road, just outside Stone Mountain, were horrified to discover wiring and plumbing cut away, water pouring onto the floor and the appliances and food taken from their kitchen in the church’s lower level.
"We're about giving and not taking, and yet someone comes in and takes from us and deprives not just us, but deprives us of the opportunity to help people," Bishop James Harper, the church's pastor, told Channel 2 Action News.
“I was thinking someone must be really desperate to come into a church and not only to steal copper, but to steal a refrigerator, stove and snacks,” said Mona Harper, the bishop's wife. She estimates the loss at $25,000 to $35,000.
“We believe it happened over a couple of days,” starting around 8 p.m. Sunday during evening worship, she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a phone interview.
The clergyman’s wife said the thieves are believed to have started Sunday night “while we were having service upstairs because our sound system started smoking and the lights started to go out and we started having electrical problems. They were apparently downstairs cutting electricity to some of our units.”
“It looks like they came back either Monday night or Tuesday and did the wiring, cut the main plumbing and actually flooded the building and finished the job,” Harper said. Those days, no church staffers were in the building, a two-story, 2,500-square-foot, 40-year-old facility that formerly was a single-family home.
Members suspected something was wrong when they arrived for Wednesday evening Bible study and there was no heat and no water in the restrooms.
“About 8:15 p.m., an elder and another gentleman went downstairs … and saw four or five inches of water” in the lower level, Harper said.
“Water was gushing from the ceiling. Everything was cut and gone -- furniture, the kitchen, all the copper in the ceiling, the plumbing lines through the entire church, the entire kitchen except for the sink, and food, snacks, silverware, everything,” she said.
A water heater, water fountain, air conditioner, dehumidifier, stove, refrigerator, microwave, griddle and broiler had been taken. The burglars even filched “glasses, dishes, colored pencils, colored paper, some fold-up chairs and tables.”
As if the damaged sheet rock and flooring weren’t enough, the intruders apparently sat down amidst the destruction, ate some snacks, and then trashed the place.
“They took school supplies, the clothes we collected to give to the poor, and threw those in the water,” Harper said. "Children’s books and Sunday school material – everything was kind of floating.”
The church has filed a burglary report with the DeKalb County Police Department and put in an insurance claim. Mount Carmel Christian Church in Stone Mountain has offered to let Kingdom City use its facilities for worship. Church members are busy reconstructing the costumes and props for the big Christmas pageant Sunday.
“Now we’re trying to regroup and doing what we’ve been called to do, and make a difference to the community. We don’t want just two or three people to stop us,” Harper said.
A work day is scheduled for this weekend, she said, “so we can hopefully be back in our church by Christmas, or at least by the New Year.” Those wishing to help can contact the church through her email, monaharper@bellsouth.net.
The Harpers say the setback is only temporary.
“Yes, they've taken those things, but they can't take away our joy," Mona Harper said.
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