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SoHo Church Break-In Hurt Programs For At-Risk Youth, Pastor Says

By Danielle Tcholakian | January 15, 2016 6:33pm | Updated on January 17, 2016 10:41pm
 Father Joe Lorenzo said the men who broke into the church destroyed property belonging to a youth outreach program.
Father Joe Lorenzo said the men who broke into the church destroyed property belonging to a youth outreach program.
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DNAinfo/Andrea Swalec

SOHO — The pastor at St. Anthony's Church said the Dec. 24 break-in to the church's gym at 145 Thompson St. was far more damaging than police originally conveyed to the media.

Father Joseph Lorenzo said that after police released the photos of the suspects, he heard from people who felt the church had overreacted.

"People are giving us some grief over making such a big deal over $15," he said.

But the front doors of the gym will likely need to be replaced entirely, the pastor said, and repairs will need to be made to facilities used by the Little Red Schoolhouse and two programs "geared toward assisting young people who may not have other opportunities for advancement."

The church is still getting estimates of what the repairs will cost, the pastor said, but he believes it will be "in the thousands of dollars." Much of the damage was done with a large fire extinguisher, he said, which the men used to break locks, destroy doors, and force open cabinets.

"If it was just $15 and a check, that would have been fine," he continued. "But the men who broke into our gym did thousands of dollars worth of damage — breaking down doors, rummaging through locked closets and lockers, and literally destroying the main offices of the Beat the Streets wrestling program."

Credit cards belonging to Beat the Streets, a wrestling program that provides academic, social and emotional support to at-risk youth, as well as The City Hoops, which aims to help young men in New York City make it to and complete college, were also taken, along with more checks, some of which were cashed.

The pastor said the suspects might be from The Bronx, since that's where the check was cashed, and an attempt was made to use a credit card belonging to one of the programs.

Lorenzo said he didn't realize the extent of the damage at first, because the programs that were hit worst cater to school children, and were closed during the winter break.

"Just to see the damage that these people did to our gym — all on the day before Christmas — is very disheartening," he said.