Man Posing As Armored Guard Takes Money From Church

Lincoln police are calling a heist at local church the most interesting of the year and now they need your help in catching a thief. Police are looking for a man who they say stole nearly $145,000 from the Berean Church on south 70th street.

The details sound like a plot from a movie. Police say a man who called himself Carl, walzted in to the biggest Church in Lincoln and calmly and unsuspiciously stole $145,000. It was a routine, every day transaction, around 8 am Tuesday morning when police say a man, dressed in an armored car service uniform came into the Berean church to collect the weekend offering and transport it to the bank.

“It was very much business as usual, and there was nothing that would have given our people to have any sort or alert or alarm,” Pastor Jeff Peterson said.

The man who called himself Carl signed his initials on the reciept, and waltzed out the door with the $145,000 offering.  The problem, it was a fraud. Pastor of the Berean Church Jeff Peterson says the plot became clear about 15 minutes later when the real guard showed up.

He says the Church immediately contacted the authorties and notified Church members to put a hold on their checking accounts. Police say the thief ended up with about $4300 in cash, the rest of the money in checks.

But for Peterson, the bigger issue isn't the money.  “We're just glad that they are safe and frankly, I'm just glad that the bad walked out without incident because the last thing I would have wanted was for one of our people to be in harms way and if they would have tried to confront this person you never know what might have happened,” Peterson said.

Police say the suspect was a white male in his late 20's, about 5-7 and 150 pounds. He has short light brown hair and was wearing glasses. Police say big congregations beware..the scheme could happen again.

“The chances are pretty good that he watched this Church or other Churches. He was familiar with the Church and how the armored car company went, about what time they would come. How they would dress and pulled a pretty brazen crime,” Chief Tom Casady said.

If you have any information you are urged to call Crime Stoppers at 475-3600.