Church loses $20,000 from collection plate

As much as $20,000 collected during a church service Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center was stolen from a locked car while the congregation was worshipping, authorities said Wednesday.

“It’s disappointing that somebody would steal from a church,” said Pastor Andy VomSteeg of New Vintage Church. “In tough economic times people do desperate things. It’s just too bad.”

The money, after being gathered from collection buckets at the service, was placed in a manila envelope and locked in the car’s trunk during the service, said Sonoma County Sheriff’s Sgt. Glenn Lawrence.

The thief broke a car window and got into the trunk through the back seat, VomSteeg said.

“They obviously knew we were a little vulnerable. Whoever did this was watching our people and where they put the money and followed them out into the parking lot,” VomSteeg said. “It’s a little scary.”

An estimated 1,000 people attended the service — the first the church has held at the Wells Fargo Center. Church officials told detectives the theft was about $20,000 in cash and checks.

VomSteeg said the average weekly income from the service is $15,000. The money wasn’t counted before being stolen, but the $20,000 estimate was based on his request that day for parishioners to give more.

“We’d asked people to give extra because it was our new first weekend” at the Wells Fargo Center, he said.

Renting the main theater at the center, just north of Santa Rosa, costs $5,000 a week, he said.

VomSteeg’s Sunday sermon was about “moral alignment.” He said another one of his messages was forgiveness.

“Now we’ll have to do what we were talking about,” he said.

VomSteeg said he didn’t think the thief was a church member.

Church-goers were alerted to the theft by e-mail Sunday afternoon. They were urged to cancel any checks given that day and were asked to give again.

“After church, we went out to eat and went home and got an e-mail right away saying the offering had been stolen,” said Pam Vandedrink.

“That’s very sad. In this day and age, you know people are hurting,” said Vandedrink, who placed $10 in the collection bucket.

The church’s head usher placed the money envelope in his car and discovered the theft after the service, VomSteeg said.

Another car was broken into that day at the Wells Fargo Center, but it was unknown if the two break-ins were related, Lawrence said.

“We don’t have a lot of leads, but there are definitely things for us to follow up,” Lawrence said.

Because the church regularly takes in checks, it is legally required to warn donors if identity theft or checking account theft may result from such a loss.

“You can start doing a lot of damage with a check,” Lawrence said. “If you do not notify people that checks, I.D. and credit info has been stolen, you (the church) could become liable for a certain dollar amount for each occurrence,” Lawrence said.

While the church’s e-mail suggested parishioners cancel their stolen checks, it didn’t mention the possibility of identity theft. VomSteeg said the church was sending out another e-mail to church members with the additional information. He also said he’d talk about it in church on Sunday.

Next week, he said, the church will put the collection into the Wells Fargo Center safe.

“It’s bolted into concrete,” VomSteeg said. “We’ll be fine from here on out.”

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com.