Thieves Steal AC Unit from Golden Valley Church
Worshipers at Church of St. Margaret Mary in Golden Valley were notified at masses over the weekend that services will be held in a fellowship hall for the rest of the summer due to theft of an air conditioning unit at the church.
According to Golden Valley police, someone stole the entire AC unit outside the worship space at the church sometime between staff turning off the air conditioning last summer and the first attempt to use it this spring.
“One Sunday morning they turned everything on and everything was blowing hot air and then they went around and determined that everything had been stripped,” said Golden Valley Police Chief Virgil Green.
Green and other officers –in this case Hennepin County Sheriff deputies helping to cover for an understaffed Golden Valley police force during daytime hours–went out to meet with church leaders to discuss a string of crimes at the church property.
Golden Valley’s Church of St. Margaret Mary has been hit multiple times by criminals in recent months, according to police.
Chief Green said those crimes includes theft of a security camera and trespassing.
“People are even just showing up on the weekends and setting up and kind of having cookouts and kind of hanging out on the church grounds, and it kind of makes you question people’s integrity,” said Green. “This is a sacred ground. Why would you come to a church and do that?”
Green said his officers have tried non-traditional approaches like parking a squad in the parking lot and additional patrols in the area to try to curb the activity.
“We’re just going to make sure we’re good partners with the faith-based organizations as well as our business community,” he said.
Attempts by CCX News to contact someone at the church were not successful as of Monday afternoon.
