Brazen Female Thief Hits Churches During Services, Stealing Keys, Wallets, Money

STERLING, Va.  (WUSA) - The same female thief is believed to have hit at least six churches in Herndon, Loudoun County and Leesburg, stealing during Sunday morning services.

"It's bizarre, brazen and troubing at the same time that someone would violate the trust of the church," says  Reverend Randy Duncan of Sterling United Methodist Church, which was hit this past Sunday.  

Rev. Duncan says while he was up on the alter at Sterlng United Methodist this past Sunday leading the second of three services, someone took church keys off his desk, and his own private home keys from the top drawer of his desk.

Later, an office worker found her wallet stolen from her purse which was under this desk, and another church member and staff worker remembers talking to an unfamiliar woman who was going through desk. Duncan says the man asked the woman if he could help and she replied that she was just leaving a note.

Not long after that, Rev. Duncan was realizing his might be stolen and not just misplaced. He told a church member his keys were missing, and the member noticed an unfamiliar woman leaving the church.
Duncan thinks the woman realized she had been noticed.

Incredibly, Sterling United Methodist wasn't the first church the alleged female thief hit Sunday morning. A woman matching the same description also hit Ashburn Presbyterian Church just before services.

"When I looked in my purse, my wallet and checkbook was missing," Brenda Chabell, the church's pre-school director said. Brenda believes she actually spoke to the thief beforehand.

"It's very sad. I know we're in desperate times. But that was my property, my wallet, my money that I earned," said Chabell, who had planned to use the money for Christmas shopping that day.

The first known church hit by the female thief was Floris United Methodist in Herndon last year.  The church's minister says surveillance video showed a woman with long, dark brown hair, heavy-set with a pear-shaped body, carrying a large black bag.  

A woman matching that same description also stole from Leesburg United Methodist Church and Leesburg Presbyterian during services last October.

Loudoun County Sheriff Steve Simpson says churches need to be more vigilant by locking doors, especially those that contain important keys, " It's pretty brazen. You're not going to know whether someone is out of place or not."

Written by Peggy Fox