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Pipes Stolen from Church Building

WYOMING — When church sexton Bruce Blackburn heard there was no water at the Historical Institute of the Wyoming Presbyterian Church, he figured the pipes...

WYOMING -- When church sexton Bruce Blackburn heard there was no water at the Historical Institute of the Wyoming Presbyterian Church, he figured the pipes froze. He was wrong.

"They said 'you don't have a problem with frozen pipes. You have no pipes.' Somebody broke in," said Blackburn.

Wyoming Police say more than 100 feet of copper plumbing are missing from the church building's basement, cutting off water and heat to the building, forcing it to close for a while.

"Elderly church people don't really like 40 degree temperature inside the building," said Blackburn.

Police believe it happened sometime in the past week, they checked out the building again after officers determined copper pipes were also stolen from the vacant house next door.

Police believe whoever did this hit up that building first and then came to the historical institute which explains why there are only a few pipes missing from here.

"It's a shame, too. I don't know why people would do this to a church at this time of the year, the Christmas season," said Thomas Lynch of Plains.

The borough has already received calls from people offering to assess and fix the damages at a reduced price. Despite the church's lack of funds, Bruce Blackburn says it's the principle of it all that hurts the most.

"People are robbing churches. Something's happened to this valley," said Blackburn.

If you have information about who may have stolen the pipes from the church building, you're asked to call Wyoming Police.

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