'Guard' gets away with $145K church deposit

LORI PILGER and COLLEEN KENNEY

Lincoln Journal Star

Police are looking for a brazen thief who went to Lincoln's Berean Church Tuesday morning dressed as an armored service guard and walked away with nearly $145,000 in cash and checks.

Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood said a man who appeared to be a guard with the armored car service went to the church’s financial office Tuesday morning and told a woman he was there to pick up the deposit.

When the woman said he was a little early, he came back with a reason that sounded plausible enough, Flood said.

"'Carl' was handed the weekend offering of around $145,000, initialed the receipt and waltzed out," said Police Chief Tom Casady.

All but about $4,000 of the money was in checks.

The plot became clear 15 minutes later — when the real guard showed up to the church at 6400 S. 70th St.

The woman at the church told police the man who left with the deposit was white, in his late 20s, 5-foot-7 or 5-foot-8, around 150 pounds with short light brown hair, glasses and a couple of days growth of facial hair. He was wearing a dark baseball cap, dark pants and a shirt with an emblem that looked just like a security uniform.

She never saw his car.

"It sounds like he knew exactly what he was doing," Flood said.

Casady said the heist likely will go down as one of the most interesting of the year in Lincoln.

And, he said, he wouldn't be surprised if the same scheme doesn't show up elsewhere.

"Large congregations, beware," Casady said.

 Berean Church member Christina Peterson, an adjunct college instructor, hopes people don’t blame the church.

“I think it’s sad,” she said Wednesday morning by phone. “Berean is a wonderful church. They do a great job. I don’t feel like this is their fault at all. This man, he even had to know the routine. The people there (at the church) had no reason to believe he was anything other than what he presented himself to be.”

She wrote a $200 check on Sunday, so she’s pretty sure it was part of money stolen. Peterson said the church informed her by e-mail to call her bank.

“They’ve done everything within their power. It’s just sad that somebody decided to target a church that’s doing really well.”

While she’s being interviewed, another call comes in.

“Oh. That’s Wells Fargo.”

She calls back in a few minutes, says the bank told her they’re stopping payment on the check and are not going to charge her.