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Suspects Arrested In St. Pete Church Burglaries

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TBO.com

Published: December 18, 2008

Updated: 12/18/2008 06:46 pm

Waldron Gant-Lution

Chanucy Brown

St. Petersburg police have arrested two men they say likely were responsible for a series of eight burglaries at seven St. Petersburg churches.

They arrested Waldron B. Gant-Lution, 19, of 2029 14th St. S., and Chanucy T. Brown, 19, 2229 14th St. S. They are now being interviewed by detectives.

Detectives say Gant-Lution pawned items that were stolen from the churches between Oct. 25 and Dec. 11.

Gant-Lution turned himself in to police at 4:45 p.m. today. He was charged with dealing in stolen property.

Police have said cash and expensive electronics were stolen from churches in western St. Petersburg.
At least one church, Elim Seventh-day Adventist Church, was hit twice, detectives said. In most cases, the churches were robbed on weekend nights.

Trinity United Church of Christ also was robbed, with someone climbing a black iron gate securing the church courtyard, chopping through the lock of the office door and ransacking the room. Pastor Gaye Bosley-Mitchell said the worst part is that robbers found the master keys and used them to search every building and room on the property.

Bosley-Mitchell knows that, she said, "because virtually every drawer, every cupboard, every closet, every maintenance closet, everything you could possibly imagine that you could pull out, was pulled out."

She said the robbers made off with about $300 in cash the congregation donated for the annual Christmas dinner. The dinner was canceled.

This week, Bosley-Mitchell said repairs and new locks on all church buildings would cost $5,000.

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