Copper piping stolen from yet another Jersey City house of worship

Updated: Sunday, December 12, 2010, 2:20 PM
Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal

Scrap metal thieves ripped out copper piping at a Baptist church last week -- the third such reported crime at a Jersey City house of worship in the last few weeks.

Jersey City police believe burglars entered through the back door of the Lighthouse Baptist Church at 175 Clerk St. before they stole up to 70 feet of copper piping from the first floor of the church, reports said.

The deacon and trustee at the church, who called police, told them he came to the church at 5 p.m. Thursday and found the piping missing, reports said. The church had been locked up the previous night at 10 p.m., he said.

The deacon could not be reached for comment.

Two other churches were hit with similar burglaries in recent weeks.
The Rev. Willie Clark, of Jersey City's Mt. Zion Church on Dwight Street, told The Jersey Journal that burglars ripped down a ceiling at his church to steal copper piping.

The robbery, which was discovered Nov. 24, has left the church without heat and stuck with a $40,000 repair bill. St. John's Baptist Church on Bramhall Avenue was also targeted by thieves for scrap metal to weeks ago, reports said.