'Father, the poor box is gone.' Thief strikes Bristol church

BRISTOL — The Rev. Henry Zinno, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, was cooking supper late Tuesday afternoon when the Rev. Steve Battey, the assistant pastor, interrupted him.

"Father, the poor box is gone," Battey told him.

Zinno was perplexed. "Where did it go?" he wondered.

Battey told him it had been stolen, Zinno related in an interview Wednesday with The Providence Journal.

The poor box, in which people donated money to help those in need with relatively small purchases — such as food, clothes or medicine — had been bolted to the wall at the back of the church right below a photo of Pope Francis, whose head is bowed, almost as if he was keeping an eye on the box.

But Tuesday around 4:30 p.m., all that was left were holes in the plaster wall and broken plaster on the floor. There was no sign of the 10-inch-by-10-inch metal box with a slot on the top and two locks. "It was ripped right out of the wall," Zinno said.

The priest doesn't think the thief got away with much. "We had just emptied it," he said. "If there was $50 in there — maybe."

Six or seven years ago, someone had been stealing money from another donation box in a different part of the church. The parish solved that problem by pointing a security camera at the box.

After a beefed-up poor box replaces its purloined predecessor, more than a photo of Pope Francis will be keeping an eye on it, Zinno said. "We'll probably extend the camera coverage to that box, too."

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic church is asking the public to help find the person who stole the poor box.

"Here at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Bristol, like most other Catholic Parishes and Communities of Faith, we strive to help the poor and disadvantaged in so many ways," Zinno wrote in a Facebook post. "SADLY TODAY, somebody ripped out our poor box from the back of our church and stole it with the money in it."

According to the post, the theft happened between 9:45 a.m. and 4 p.m.

"If anyone saw anything suspicious around our church during that time frame, please contact Officer Gaffney at the Bristol Police," Zinno said. "In the mean time we will figure a way to make this opportunity to help the poor more secure in our church. It is very sad!"

Zinno said that Mount Carmel would remain open for prayer and meditation in spite of the robbery.

The Journal left a message with the Bristol Police Department seeking comment.

With reports by Journal Staff Writer Kevin G. Andrade.

— pparker@providencejournal.com

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