Members of a west Phoenix church are reaching out to the public after thieves made took the building's air conditioning unit Thursday morning.
Pastor Barajas of Aposento Alto Church, near 43rd Avenue and Osborn Road, says he's shocked someone would steal from the church.
“You don’t take from someone else’s table to feed your table,” Barajas said.
JC Canuas says he was at the church around 7 p.m. Sunday when he first heard a loud bang on the room.
“We had no idea what was going on; we just thought they were trying to break into the building,” said JC Canuas. "It sounded like they were breaking in through the attic."
By the time he made his way to the roof he heard a truck speeding away.
“It took me a minute to realize what was stolen until I started to look up on the roof,” he explained.
What he realized was an entire AC unit was missing.
Police believe the thieves basically unbolted the AC unit and lowered it down to a truck below using ropes and manpower.
Little did Canuas know, later that night, while he slept in the basement, the thieves would return. Snatching a second AC unit in the cover of darkness.
“They did it so fast they had to know what they were doing,” said Canuas.
But what they were really doing was stealing from a source of hope and a community who can’t afford an $8,000 bill.
Barajas says it could take six months to a year for them to raise that amount in donations.
Both AC units cool the youth ministry classrooms; rooms where children come to study for school and hear the word of god.
“Hopefully whoever did it is watching this and know that it really does affect not only the building, but the whole community,” said Barajas.
The church has set up a GoFundMe page if you would like to help them pay for the costs of a new AC unit.
