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Partly Cloudy Long Beach man allegedly burglarized houses of worship
Police meet with clergy to discuss ways to prevent future incidents
Following the arrest of a Long Beach man last week who allegedly committed a string of burglaries at eight different houses of worship, clergy members came together for an informational meeting held by the Long Beach Police Department on Tuesday at City Hall.
The meeting — led by Long Beach Police Department Inspector John Radin and Detective Lt. James Canner — was organized following the arrest of Terrence Farr, 44, of East Hudson Street, who was charged with 10 counts of third-degree burglary on Dec. 8.
Police said that Farr allegedly committed 13 burglaries at different religious institutions from March through December across the city, including St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Cruzada Evangelica Misioner, the Friedberg Jewish Community Center Nursery School, the New Life Church of Christ, the Bach Jewish Center, the New Life Church of Christ Disciples of Christ, and St. John’s Lutheran Church by The Sea and New Zion Church.
According to police, Farr typically stole cash and items made of precious metals, such as brass and silver items. Several congregations, police said, were burglarized more than once. Farr was arraigned Dec. 9 in Long Beach City Court by Judge Frank Dikranis, and is being held at the Nassau County Correction Facility on $10,000 bail.
“He did give us 10 confessions on 10 different burglaries that he committed,” Canner said at the conference, noting that surveillance cameras police installed in the houses of worship led to a “break” in the case. “We caught him on video surveillance, and he stayed at several of those locations for over an hour.”
Canner and Radin were joined by other officers who investigated the case, including Det. John Sharpe, Det. Mike Corbett, Sgt. Richard DePalma, Det. Sgt. Karl Hayes and Det. Sgt. Howard Domitz, who discussed the arrest and recommended that clergy members fix and re-secure windows and doors to prevent burglars from gaining access to the buildings. The preventive measure was greatly emphasized, Canner said, because many of the burglaries involving religious institutions were due to open windows.
