Vandals hit tiny church in the Pines
By PAUL LEAKAN
Burlington County Times
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-07092004-328972.html
SOUTHAMPTON - Fred Potts expected a normal day trimming bushes at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church on Philo's Bridge Road last Thursday.
Instead, a sick feeling of frustration and disbelief came over him as he discovered the latest destruction at the tiny country church.
Sometime the day before, he said, vandals yanked five electric street lanterns out of the ground in the parking lot, stuffing one down the chimney and bending over two others.
They also jumped on the air-conditioning unit and nearly ripped down the electric-meter box.
"I thought, 'What is the matter with people?' Potts said yesterday. "They have to be out of their minds or on drugs or drunk."
The church, on an isolated road in this Pinelands township, has been vandalized at least five times during the past 20 years.
Church officials reported the vandalism to the New Jersey State Police, and they are now pondering installing of a motion-detector camera and surveillance system, Potts said.
In the meantime, they're not sure how to keep their church from being a target for vandals.
"Thank the good Lord that they didn't get inside," said Joan Mitchell, clerk of session for the board of elders.
The church, a part of which was once a one-room schoolhouse, has 107 members. Some 50 to 60 attend Sunday services, including many from the LeisureTowne retirement community off Route 70.
Potts, who maintains the church's grounds, said the wooded area behind the church parking lot is a popular drinking spot for teenagers. He often has to pick up beer cans, beer bottles and used condoms from the wooded area, he said.
Last year, vandals stole a plaque placed in a memorial garden in remembrance of a church member who died from a brain tumor, Mitchell said.
In previous years, a pentagram and satanic messages were spray painted on the exterior walls and someone tossed a half-empty whiskey bottle through the Sunday school window, sending shards of glass onto a table where children sit, Mitchell said.
"It makes me sick because I don't know who would do this," Mitchell said. "I have no idea, and no one else in the church has any idea why."
Mitchell is encouraging anyone with information about the latest vandalism to contact the New Jersey State Police at the Red Lion station at (609) 859-2316.
By PAUL LEAKAN
Burlington County Times
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-07092004-328972.html
SOUTHAMPTON - Fred Potts expected a normal day trimming bushes at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church on Philo's Bridge Road last Thursday.
Instead, a sick feeling of frustration and disbelief came over him as he discovered the latest destruction at the tiny country church.
Sometime the day before, he said, vandals yanked five electric street lanterns out of the ground in the parking lot, stuffing one down the chimney and bending over two others.
They also jumped on the air-conditioning unit and nearly ripped down the electric-meter box.
"I thought, 'What is the matter with people?' Potts said yesterday. "They have to be out of their minds or on drugs or drunk."
The church, on an isolated road in this Pinelands township, has been vandalized at least five times during the past 20 years.
Church officials reported the vandalism to the New Jersey State Police, and they are now pondering installing of a motion-detector camera and surveillance system, Potts said.
In the meantime, they're not sure how to keep their church from being a target for vandals.
"Thank the good Lord that they didn't get inside," said Joan Mitchell, clerk of session for the board of elders.
The church, a part of which was once a one-room schoolhouse, has 107 members. Some 50 to 60 attend Sunday services, including many from the LeisureTowne retirement community off Route 70.
Potts, who maintains the church's grounds, said the wooded area behind the church parking lot is a popular drinking spot for teenagers. He often has to pick up beer cans, beer bottles and used condoms from the wooded area, he said.
Last year, vandals stole a plaque placed in a memorial garden in remembrance of a church member who died from a brain tumor, Mitchell said.
In previous years, a pentagram and satanic messages were spray painted on the exterior walls and someone tossed a half-empty whiskey bottle through the Sunday school window, sending shards of glass onto a table where children sit, Mitchell said.
"It makes me sick because I don't know who would do this," Mitchell said. "I have no idea, and no one else in the church has any idea why."
Mitchell is encouraging anyone with information about the latest vandalism to contact the New Jersey State Police at the Red Lion station at (609) 859-2316.
