A mystery man carrying a screwdriver and wire has been attempting to steal from the poor box at an Islington church as often as three times a week for the last four years.
Fr Howard James, the parish priest at St John the Evangelist church told Islington Now that he has had to repeatedly chase away the man. The middle-aged man has never succeeded in stealing any of the funds since Fr Howard took up his position in 2008, but it hasn’t stopped him from trying.
Fr Howard said: “I just shoo him away, but if he attacked me I am not going to stand there and take it. I am going to defend myself.” The man sneaks into the church and tries to get at the money by poking some wire through the slit on top of the wall-mounted box, which has “Poor Box” written across it.
Fr Howard said: “He comes on his bicycle and pretends that he is praying. He gets a piece of wire and he puts something on the end of it and pushes it in the box and tries to get the money out.”
Although the man has never attacked anyone, Fr Howard remains wary of him, and said: “Next time he comes back I am going to call the police, because he carries a screwdriver. “He is a small man, but you never know what he is going to do.”
Despite the man’s incessant attempts to steal parishioners’ donations to the poor, Fr Howard is unsurprised. He said: “I have been a priest for 20 years, and every church I have been in this has happened. Once the church is open, you are liable.”
The parish has also had problems with bicycle thieves. After a Sunday mass earlier this year, thieves removed a church railing so that they could steal two parishioners’ bicycles. The would-be thief is in his early forties, small, slim and speaks with an eastern European accent.
