By Wendy Anders

Even the faithful aren’t exempt from common crimes in Costa Rica.

The latest church this year to be robbed in Costa Rica was the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Catholic Temple in the canton of Mora, which neighbors Santa Ana west of San José, reported Costa Rica’s tabloid El Diario Extra today.

Based on police reports from municipal Mora police, the theft took place between Saturday evening’s mass, during which a marriage was celebrated, and Sunday morning.

Priest Orlando Garcia told Diario Extra he doesn’t rule out the possibility that someone snuck into the mass on Saturday and hid inside until the church was locked for the night in order to carry out the theft. This is because no gates or doors were forced open to commit the raid.

Because there was no evidence from outside that the building had been broken into, the robber (or robbers) had plenty of time to thoroughly search and ransack the temple, Garcia told Diario Extra.

The thieves made off with CRC300,000 (around US$550) that had been collected from parishioners and had been earned from a raffle, plus electronic devices such as tablets and mobile phones, said the Extra.

When the Catholic priests arrived Sunday morning, they discovered a side door was open, which immediately alerted them to something fishy.

Police are investigating whether this latest incident is related to two church break-ins that occurred a few weeks ago in nearby Puriscal. One of these took place in the Iglesia Cristiana Monte Alto evangelical church in August in which cash and many items valued at nearly US$5,000 were stolen, and another in a Catholic church, stated Diario Extra.

Police will review footage on the church’s security cameras to see if they can find clues about the theft.

According to the Criminal Analysis Unit of the Judicial Investigative Agency (OIJ), this was the 59th theft from a church in Costa Rica this year. The robberies have taken place throughout the country, and from churches of various denominations.