SASCHA WIL­SON

Thieves broke in­to a Pres­by­ter­ian school and church in Williamsville last week.

Noth­ing was tak­en from the Rivers­dale Pres­by­ter­ian School, but they ran­sacked and stole sev­er­al items of the church which is lo­cat­ed on the same com­pound. They made off with the church’s re­frig­er­a­tor, TV mon­i­tor, speak­er and tri­pod, pro­jec­tor and about $300. The bur­glars gained en­try in­to the school on Thurs­day night by de­tach­ing a gal­va­nize sheet on the roof. The fol­low­ing day, mem­bers se­cured the church and left around 11 pm.

Some­time lat­er, the ban­dits broke a pad­lock of the front gate and en­tered the com­pound. They then broke the glass of one the church’s win­dow then cut the bur­glar-proof and crawled in­to the church. The thieves ran­sacked the vestry as they searched for valu­ables. The bur­glary was dis­cov­ered around 8 am on Sat­ur­day when a work­er ar­rived to clean the com­pound.

The to­tal cost of the items was es­ti­mat­ed to be over $17,000. Guardian Me­dia was told that this was the first time that crim­i­nals have tar­get­ed the church and school. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.