VIDEO: Church Break-Ins Are Becoming More Common; Things Churches Can Do To Protect Themselves

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI)-When you think of a church, you usually think of it as a place of worship and praise.

However, lately some criminals have been seeing them as easy targets.

In fact, just a few weeks ago a church in Columbus was broken into.

“People have lost their spiritual morals when it comes to God,” said Pastor Randy Randle, Community Wide Outreach Ministry.

Randle has been a pastor in Columbus for five years now, and said the recent news about people breaking into churches is a little unsettling.

“When they break into the house of the Lord, something that’s  supposed to be holy ground, and it’s supposed to be a sanctuary, a for a safe haven for you, it makes you fearful,” said Pastor Randle.

The pastor admits, smaller churches are usually the ones burglars prey on.

“I think that’s what they target mostly, churches that are off to themselves, and maybe not have a lot of lighting around it, and it’s easy access,” he said.

“Churches are an easy target of course, but there’s nobody there other than at church time, or Sunday school time, or if they’re having a gospel meeting,” said Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell.

However ,to help combat this problem, Sheriff Cantrell and his deputies regularly check-in on all of the local churches.

They also leave specialized  door hangers once they’re done to send a message to the bad guys.

“The piano, or organ, o guitars, or whatever they have in there, speaker systems, or whatever,” the sheriff explained. “That’s an easy sale to other people, or trade it for drugs or whatever and a lot of people do that.”

Randle said he desperately wants to see this cycle come to an end, and has this advice for churches to protect themselves from break-ins.

“What we need to do is to get out and meet and greet the people first and foremost, and then build a relationship with them, and then they’ll be our eyes,” the pastor explained. “They’ll watch the church, they’ll make sure the church is OK.”

“Make sure the doors are locked, make sure the windows are locked, make sure your security system is up-to-date, make sure you have everything working properly,” said Sheriff Cantrell.

“We can do more by making sure we have better security lights up, streetlights, or whatever we can to make the church more noticeable even at night time,” said Pastor Randle.

If a person breaks into a church and is caught, they can be charged with “Burglary of a Church” and face felony charges as well as jail time.