SOMERVILLE, Tenn. (FOX13) -- A pastor's home outside Somerville was burglarized Sunday morning while he was preaching Palm Sunday services in Memphis.
The thieves took a six-foot tall safe with $100,000 worth in cash, guns and jewelry right through the front door of the pastor's mansion.
As a man of the cloth Pastor B.G. Brooks has no doubt preached about the Biblical commandments that include, "Thou Shalt Not Steal.”
But having personally seen the damage inside the pastor's home caused by a group of burglars it wasn't their Bibles they were intent to crack open on Palm Sunday.
It was supposed to be a joyous Palm Sunday celebration of "Love Day" inside Mount Pisgah Church for Pastor Brooks' and his congregation in Memphis. But, miles away at his isolated home outside Somerville, his daughter was discovering the family got no love at all from a band of determined thieves who swiped a six-foot tall safe laden with cash, jewels and expensive guns.
“Over $100,000 worth of jewelry. He doesn't buy little rings cause his hands so big, very beautiful jewelry,” said Stephanie Brooks. “The first thing I do when I come up, I go to my mom and them's room because of the safe, because it's been stolen before. So, there's not one in there. It's gone.”
“A safe weighs a ton,” said Calvin Watkins, neighbor. “So, it had to have been at least about four or five guys -- and they were young guys because I don't believe an older guy would do this.”
While the Fayette County Sheriff's investigator would only tell FOX13 News the case is being worked, the thieves left plenty of clues behind, including a hand print, various finger and shoe prints and a black smudged trail of where they managed to drag the safe through the house to the front door and into a waiting vehicle.
While they might have been sloppy in their execution of the burglary, they may have also led investigators to an even bigger clue as to their identities by disarming the house's alarm system after they broke a window to get in.
“They had to run immediately to that alarm,” Watkins said. “That one or that one, in the bedroom or the one out the side door, to know the code and go ahead and reset it then.”
FOX13 News spoke with Pastor Brooks by phone, but he was unavailable to be interviewed. However, his daughter said while he was upset, but he was still philosophical about the material losses.
“He's a man of God, and he's like, God will provide,” Watkins said. “If something gets taken away from me the Lord will bring it back.”
Stephanie Brooks said this is the second time in three years her father's home has been broken into and a safe stolen. The last time the safe was found but the contents including other jewels and money were burned up when the thief tried to set it on fire to open it.
http://www.myfoxmemphis.c...lry-guns-taken