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Couple 'stole from church'
17/10/2007 19:08 - (SA)
Stuttgart - Police believe they have caught offenders who have emptied 12 000 offertory boxes in German churches in the past nine years, stealing a total of €250 000.
The woman, 57, and her male partner, 44, had been living off the proceeds.
Visitors donate for the upkeep of churches or pay for brochures by putting coins into such boxes through a slot. A priest grew suspicious of how the couple felt a moneybox at length.
He jotted down their car licence plate number in a hymnal. When the car returned to the car park of the same shrine in the town of Zell am Harmersbach, he called police.
"He was spot on," a policeman said on Wednesday of the priest.
The police found €150 in coins on the couple, who have criminal records, and €6 800 in coins and banknotes in dozens of plastic bags at the woman's filthy apartment near the south-western city of Freiburg.
The woman admitted she also took valuable crosses and religious paintings if she could. She went on her "business trips" all over southern Germany two or three times a week by car, train or bus.
Police also found masses of foreign coinage and even pre-1945 banknotes. Donors often leave useless currency in offertory boxes. Following admissions, the couple were granted bail.
- Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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