Police in Leawood, Kansas, are looking for car thieves after two cars were stolen from two separate church parking lots while parishioners were worshiping inside.
The first theft occurred on Sunday, Sept. 8, when a 2012 Hyundai Sonata was stolen from the parking lot of Church of the Nativity. The next Sunday, Sept. 15, a 2016 Hyundai Tucson was taken from Curé of Ars Catholic Church.
Both victims say they locked their vehicles before entering the churches.
“We’re just scared,” Carolina Shank, a parishioner of Curé of Ars, told FOX 4. “We saw cops and then we got pretty worried.”
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Shank’s children also attend the church’s private school. Shank said Curé of Ars School sent a letter to parents, encouraging them to stay vigilant and lock vehicles.
“This is not something we typically see here in Johnson County, so you worry a lot, you worry for your safety, your kids, for the whole community,” Shank said. “So it’s scary.”
While authorities have opened an investigation, Cody Morse, community outreach officer for the Leawood Police Department, said that investigators have not yet uncovered evidence indicating that the two thefts are connected.
Police have recovered the Hyundai Sonata stolen from the Church of the Nativity after finding it in Kansas City, Missouri, roughly 15 miles away from Leawood.
Police believe the thief is a man in his early 20s. The suspect used credit cards he found inside the car, and police have shared images of the suspect captured by surveillance cameras.
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“The overwhelming majority of these cases that we’re seeing are often still unlocked cars or valuables left in plain sight, although that is not the case in these two cases,” Morse said. “Both the victims still have keys to those vehicles, and we didn’t find any broken glass on the ground or anything.”
