Crime Blotter: Two Churches Burglarized, Money Stolen from Medical Office

Two churches were burglarized recently.

Police were dispatched to the at 3321 Wexford Road in Gibsonia around 4 p.m. Sunday when a security company reported a front door alarm, according to the Northern Regional Police Department.

The front door had been forced open, police said. Officers searched the church's interior, but found no one, police said. 

Church representatives checked the church and reported nothing was missing, according to the police report.

Police then checked with nearby churches and discovered another incident at a Gibsonia church.

Pastor Ralph Vogel of the Church at the Heights told police that two women working at the 500 Salem Lane church Thursday night confronted a man who had forced his way into the church.

The women were alone in the building when they heard a loud thump on the upstairs exterior door, police said.

"The females went upstairs to investigate the noise and it happened again. As the females walked up the steps, a male was coming down the steps," the police report said. "The females stated that the door was locked and the male must have forced it open."

The women said the man told them he was there for a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, police said.

The man left after the women told him there was no meeting, according to the police report.

The women described the man as a white male, about 25 years old, standing 5'10", weighing 180 pounds and wearing a gray T-shirt and black pants.

Money Stolen from Medical Office

North Hills Natural Medicine in Wexford reported $80 cash was missing from its office.

When receptionist Christina Defade arrived for work on the morning of Feb. 21, she found the locked cabinet doors in the secretaries' office had been forced open and the money was missing from an unsecured cash box inside, the police report said.

The office is located at 2500 Brooktree Road, Suite 300.