Elberta Church Break-In

Worship service at an Elberta church were not quite the same after a weekend burglary. Someone may be making a joyful noise this holiday season but they're doing it with stolen instruments.
Pastor Carl Stokley spent his morning trying to figure up how much his church, "The Cross", lost over the weekend. "It's sad to know that people go that low to steal from the church." Gone are guitars, drums, amplifiers and more. "We use those to minister to our kids. We use them to do dramas. We really can't have worship like we normally do so we just went and found a bunch of instruments for Sunday morning and did the best we could."
Police believe they came in a back door and would have taken a lot more if they hadn't scared themselves according to Elberta Police officer Brandon Thompson. "The mixer and at that time it had initiated the lights on the stage which startled the thieves and they were actually tripping over things and trying to leave and dropping items outside the door."
Thompson says police have beefed up patrols around all area churches, "Especially this time of the year. a lot of things seem to go missing at times like these people are taking things for money and things of that nature but its very terrible to hear a church broken into."
Pastor Stokley would like to believe whoever took the instruments, needs them more than the church does. "Maybe they sold them to get something to eat thats what I hope." Whatever the reason, it's the season that makes this one hard to take.
Stokley estimates the instruments were valued at around ten thousand dollars. The burglary will not change any of the church's holiday service plans.