SOHO — Six men were arrested for breaking into a church's gym on Christmas Eve to play basketball, police said.
The gym at St. Anthony's Church is used by organizations that serve at-risk youth, according to the church pastor, Rev. Joe Lorenzo, who said the intruders badly damaged or destroyed the property and office of those organizations.
A check for $100 and $15 in cash were stolen in that break-in, police said. The men broke in again on Jan. 14, police said, and a third time early Thursday morning, when officers caught them shooting hoops at 2 a.m.
Lorenzo said he got a call about 2 a.m. Thursday morning from a passerby who heard a basketball game going on inside the church's gym at 145 Thompson St.
"I figured our culprits had gotten back in the gym, even though we changed the locks," he said.
The pastor called 911, and police from the 1st Precinct "arrived immediately," he said, and found the six men in the gym.
All six were arrested, police said, on charges of criminal trespass. The youngest is 16 years old and the oldest is 22.
Two, ages 17 and 18, were also charged with burglary in the third degree for stealing the check and cash, police said. None have been arraigned as of yet.
