Bremerton church burglarized twice in one week; suspect on the run

BREMERTON, Wash. -- Burglars are targeting churches in Bremerton.  Several have been hit in recent months, but one church was hit twice in one week.

“It’s a little bit scary,” said Mark Adrian, pastor at Christ at Memorial Lutheran Church in Bremerton.

Surveillance video shows a man who attended a meeting at the church walking through the halls a couple of weeks ago.

Adrian said the man scoped out areas of the church that were off limits, before walking off with a flat screen TV.

“The group had an evening meeting and during that meeting somebody came into their group that normally wasn’t a part of it,” added Adrian.

The pastor said the suspect claimed to be going to the restroom but instead made his way through the church while no one noticed.

“We like to be very open to the community and we like to bring restoration to Bremerton so it’s really sad when somebody takes advantage of that,” said Adrian.

It’s a maze of hallways throughout the church building and that could have helped the suspect make his way through the building without getting caught.

“He cut the lock on here and was disappointed; he didn’t steal the crayons and such that were in there,” said Adrian, as he opened up a closet used by the preschoolers at the church.

The church pastor believes the man rigged a side door so he could come back and help himself to more items.

The second time he came back, Adrian said, the man took a computer, some drums and a donated video camera.

“Then came up here and the sound board was on the side of the stairs here. It had fallen over as if he was to steal that,” said Adrian.

The church is working with the group that hosted the meeting to prevent this from happening in the future.

“The churches in this town do many things for those in need and for someone to come in and steal things and take advantage of them, to me that is appalling,” said Bremerton police Detective Beau Ayers.

Bremerton police know who they’re looking for and say this man has a long criminal record. Ayers identified the suspect as Trenton R. Towne, 29.

Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the suspect.

“We’ve been on his trail and he knows we’re looking for him, so now he’s on the run,” added Ayers.

On Tuesday night, another church a few miles away became a target. Police say Sylvan Way Baptist Church had a door window broken out and several electronics stolen.

Police don’t know if the same man is responsible for the latest crime.