JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man police said was caught on camera last week stealing from St. Joseph's Catholic Church was arrested and charged with that crime and eight other burglaries.
Delonta Burrell, 25, broke into the church on Old St. Augustine Road about 5 a.m. last Tuesday, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. According to the police report, the man smashed a window, damaged a door, ransacked the church, stole $400 out of a safe and took an undisclosed amount of money out of the church's cash register.
The other eight burglaries were all at businesses on the Southside and Mandarin between Dec. 17 and last week.
In addition to the burglaries, Burrell is charged with possession of marijuana and driving on a suspended license. News4Jax found Burrell was released from prison last November after serving 17-months in prison on a previous conviction on multiple burglaries.
The photo released of the St. Joseph's Catholic Church burglar shows a man wearing a hoodie, holding a flashlight in his mouth, and carrying a backpack and a hammer.
"I don't think that's a person at all," said Ed Robiou, who's new to Jacksonville and came to pray at the church Monday afternoon. "That's an animal, for real, to steal from God."
Robiou said it's unbelievable knowing someone stole from a house of worship.
"That's horrible. You wouldn't even be thinking anything like that would be going on. So for something like that to happen, it's unthinkable," he said. "Need to get him off the streets. If you're going to steal from a church, then I don't know what crime that you won't do."
Marge Townsend, a former church member, said attending St. Joseph's was always a peaceful experience.
"They do anything in the world to create an atmosphere of you experiencing God and getting closer to him," Townsend said.
She and current church members told News4Jax that the burglary was upsetting, but they're thankful the church had security cameras.
"I think it’s despicable. I can’t even believe that somebody would have the nerve to take something from a church, whose sole purpose is to give," Townsend said. "I can't even express it in words. The Lord is everything to us. And to do something like that would mean to me that, whatever is going on in their life, they don't have any conception of the Lord and what he is doing and loving them at this moment."
Townsend said she hopes the accused burglar can have remorse and the church can have justice.
"If they're brought to remorse, understanding of what they've done, sorrow for that, I bet that would be the best possible outcome," Townsend said.
Early last Thursday, at least three businesses in the Sandalwood area were broken into. Security camera footage captured images of a person who looks similar to the man captured on the church's surveillance video. The Sheriff's Office would not confirm that the two are the same person.
"Every incident is investigated separately until evidence dictates otherwise," a JSO spokeswoman said in a statement to News4Jax. "At this time, we can’t say they are definitely related."
St. Joseph's was the second church in Jacksonville to be burglarized this year. Earlier this month, the Southside Church of God In Christ on Emerson Street was broken into. The pastor told News4Jax that about $30,000 worth of items were stolen and that there were no working surveillance cameras at the time of the break-in.
Burrell is not charged with that crime.
Anyone with information about that case is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500.