Bronx, NY - Three religious buildings have been broken into within the last month -- all in the Bronx. The most recent was a Jewish temple on City Island. Police are looking at whether the break-ins are connected.
Rabbi Shohama Weiner showed us Temple Beth El's sanctuary and the centerpiece: the torahs. But they're missing an important part: silver crown ornaments that were stolen when the temple was broken into earlier this month.
Items worth thousands of dollars worth were taken. Plus windows and doors were broken.
"We've felt so safe on City Island," Rabbi Weiner said. "It's been our Garden of Eden."
Temple Beth El is the third place of worship in the Bronx broken into since December. The break in was discovered January 13, 2012.
A week earlier, a Greek Orthodox church in Pelham Bay was hit.
"We feel very much violated," said Ted Germanakos, a church volunteer. "We consider ourselves a staple of the Bronx… it's disheartening."
Police say $50 was stolen from the donation box and the building was ransacked.
Around the corner, the school connected to our lady of assumption church was burglarized; $400 in cash and two laptop computers were stolen.
The obvious question: is it all connected?
The police are working on some leads, possibly fingerprints picked up at the locations. That will help if it was one person, or a group of people, and if all three are connected.
Both churches and the temple are planning to beef up security including adding new cameras.
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