Thieves steal from Ballintra church using bolt cutters

Heartless thieves used bolt cutters to steal a small amount of cash from a locked draw of a candle unit at Saint Brigid's Catholic Church in Ballintra

Local priest, Very Rev Adrian Gavigan, CC said the incident had "left a bit of a bad taste" with the community.

"We think the incident happened sometime between 3.30pm and 6pm last Thursday afternoon. We have two candelabrum units for holding our candles at the back of the church near the main door and both were broken into. We think bolt cutters were used to break the lock. A few euro was taken but not very much. There was no other damage done in the church itself."

Fr Gavigan explained they knew the break-in happened around that afternoon from talking to people who would have been in the area around that time and the fact the church is closed around 6pm during the winter evenings.

He said they were aware that something like this had happened in other churches in the south and south-west Donegal over the past few months.

"We were aware of this so any money was taken out regularly. You can't police this sort of thing nor would we close the doors of the church because of a thing like this but it does leave a bit of a bad taste. Whoever did this is obviously targeting different churches."

He added that gardaí had been contacted and they had examined CCTV footage as part of their investigations.

He appealed to anyone who may have noticed anything unusual in the vicinity of the church last Thursday to contact him or the gardaí if they thought they had any information that might help.