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Burglars target small town churches

Valuables stolen, doors damaged
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Church Deacon Don Surrency is frustrated to say the least.

“Here we try and do good for the community and we get stuff like this,” he said.

Wednesday of last week, Surrency said thieves busted through the backdoor at the First Baptist Church of Lacoochee.

They went room to room, taking what they could.

They stole a karaoke machine belonging to a member and audio equipment used for gatherings.

But even worse,  they busted several doors to offices and classrooms, leaving behind hundreds of dollars worth of damage.

“Once they got inside, it looked like they just did things just for meanness,” Surrency said.

This church is one of three within a mile victimized this month.

A Hispanic church down the road lost audio equipment too and musical instruments.

And Wednesday, someone tried to break in to the Church of the Living God.

They ripped out a box air conditioner.

And while they didn’t make it inside, that AC unit is gone.

Back at First Baptist, they’ve been making repairs and cleaning up.

The deacon said whoever’s doing this doesn’t represent the good people of Lacoochee.

“We’ve got some like any other town, city, community has. We’ve got some people that are low class really. They don’t have any concern for God’s house or anything like that. They just get what they want. It doesn’t matter how they get it,” he said

Surrency said even checked out some local pawn shops to try and find the stolen items.

They are waiting for an estimate to find out just how much it is going to cost to repair all the damage.