Speakers, Lights and a Security Guard in Custody: Four Held Over a More Than $600,000 Theft From a Clarendon Church

• Equipment was stolen from Spalding New Testament Church in Clarendon overnight
• Six speaker boxes, eight LED lights and a case of tissue were valued at $660,000
• Four men were detained, including the church’s security guard
• Police found the goods abandoned on a church compound when the suspects fled

Thieves struck Spalding New Testament Church in Clarendon between 9:45 on Saturday night and 12:30 on Sunday morning, the Jamaica Observer reported. They took six speaker boxes, eight LED lights and a case of tissue, together valued at $660,000.

Four men were detained. Among them was the church’s own security guard. Also held was the owner of a motorbike seized in the case. Two were picked up at about 5:00 am in the town by Sergeant Romaine Brooks and his team from the Spalding Police Station.

According to the report, the suspects fled when they saw a police patrol. They turned onto a church compound and left behind the stolen items and a parked motorbike. One suspect was the registered owner of a vehicle and was found with its remote control. Police said that at his home in Ulster Spring, Trelawny, officers found “top-shelf liquors, a crocus bag filled with cellular phones and tablets and several flat-screen televisions.” Police records showed he had recently finished a prison sentence for housebreaking and larceny. A second man was said to be on bail on an illegal firearm charge and barred from entering St Ann.

The detail that stands out for church trustees is that the security guard was among those held. A guard is only as reliable as the checks behind the hiring. Churches should check references and police records, use reputable security firms where possible, and not rely on a single person to protect a building full of equipment.

Sound and lighting systems are now among the most valuable things many Jamaican churches own, and they are easy to carry off. Keeping an inventory with serial numbers and photographs, locking equipment into fixed storage, installing lights and cameras, and insuring contents as well as the building all reduce the loss when thieves strike. Small rural congregations, which often raise these funds over years, can least afford to replace them.

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