$317,000 Stolen from West Chicago Church

"A former Catholic church deacon and business manager who admitted he stole more than $317,000 from his West Chicago church was sentenced Monday to six years in prison.

George Valdez took the money from St. Mary’s Catholic Church, using it to pay credit-card bills and other personal expenses — and to buy himself $10,000 in Bears and White Sox tickets."

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$16,000 Goes Missing From Pastors Hiding Place

"Sometime between Sunday and Monday afternoon police say a local church was broken into and thousands of dollars was taken.

The burglary happened here at the Shilo Four Square Church off Holmes in Idaho Falls. The pastor says he had stashed $16 thousand dollars to pay for some work being done at his home and that someone took all that money."

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There are a couple of things that I don't like about this article. Why did the pastor have $16,000 in cash? Why did he have this money hiding in the church and not secured in a safe? What does "stash" mean?

Your church needs to have strict rules when it comes to the handling of money. As a investigator I would be tempted to investigate this crime as a inside job off of the limited information that I have received. Protect your church and protect your leadership by having rules for how you will handle the churches money. 

Thousands Stolen from La Crosse Church

"An Onalaska woman is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from a northside La Crosse church over the last decade.

47-year-old Ann Carson, the former office manager at North Presbyterian Church, allegedly wrote checks to herself between 2000 and 2010.

La Crosse Police say the checks were for a large sum of money, but reports did not say how much."

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Over the past year I have noticed an increasing trend in the media related to inside theft jobs at churches. This should not surprise me. Scripture does say that that "flesh is weak".

Matthew 26:41 (ESV) "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

As protectors and overseers we need guard the church from those with weak flesh in relation to our churches finances. There are many steps that can be taken to accomplish this. Start with a background check. You want to know the legal past of those who are handling your money, as well as, those who are serving or working in your church. Always enforce a two person rule when it come to handling money or signing checks. Some churches set a dollar limit. For example any check over $1,000 has to have two signatures on it from two different people. Criminals can still be sneaky and write multiple checks for under that amount and cash them at different banks. You may consider a policy that mandates two signatures on any checks. Make sure two people are always counting the offerings together and handling deposits. Make sure the two people are not related to each other. You have a better chance that they would not be planning a theft together. Rotate who counts and handles your money. This will help you discover patterns if money does come up missing. 

Over $100K Stolen for Boston Church

LOWELL, Mass.—A Tyngsborough woman once responsible for counting the collections at a Roman Catholic church has been charged with skimming more than $100,000 from the donations.

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When talking with churches abut this issue I always recommend that they use the two person rule. This rule states that you always have two people in control of church offerings at all times. From the moment it is collected to the time it gets deposited into the bank, two people should be accountable for it. As soon as the money is collected it should be counted, then stored securely until it can be deposited. Two people should initially independently count the money to insure that they obtain the same number. When the money is deposited into the bank the deposit slip should match the recorded amount of money counted by both individuals.