Screenshot of the CCTV video uploaded by the San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish Church that recorded the moments a woman looted the donation box inside the church’s Adoration Chapel. According to church officials, the incident took place last September 28. | Screenshot from San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish Cebu
CEBU CITY, Philippines – A parish priest here wants to meet the woman who was caught by surveillance cameras looting their church’s donation box.
The San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish Church in Brgy. Tisa, Cebu City has sought the help of local police in identifying the woman seen looting the donation box inside their Adoration Chapel last September 28, 2023.
In an interview, Police Major Angelito Valleser, chief of the Labangon Police Station, said the church has already coordinated with their office in the hopes of tracing the identity of the woman.
The parish priest, Rev. Fr. Jed Matella, wants to personally meet the woman and have a talk with her, said Valleser. The priest also wanted to learn how the woman spent the money she took off from the donation box, the police added.
It can be recalled that the San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish Church took to social media to ask for help from netizens in identifying the woman looting the donation box in their Adoration Chapel, which was recorded by the church’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
A copy of the surveillance footage was uploaded online and has since gone viral.
In the video, the woman, who was also carrying her infant child, can be seen using the handle of an offering basket to pry the donation box open.
She would then insert one of her arms in getting cash stashed inside, and then place it in her black sling bag. After looting the donation box, the woman went back to her infant child, and gathered their belongings, before leaving the chapel’s premises.
/bmjo
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