Stealing thousands of dollars from a place of worship -- it was all caught on camera at a Northwest Side Sikh temple.
Surveillance video showed a man stuffing nearly $5,000 in donations inside a bag.
The thief, wearing a black shirt and jeans, was seen being dropped off by a silver car, walking inside the Sikh Dharamshala temple.
He was seen on surveillance video trying to pry open the donation box and then dragging it to the front door. That’s when the safe cracked open and the thief began stuffing the money in a white bag.
The man then got into a silver car and drove away.
“It’s really disturbing that this would happen in the middle of the day. Clearly, the person who did this was desperate, desperately seeking money,” Singh said.
Surveillance showed the thief in and out of the temple within 10 minutes during the middle of the day.
Singh said it’s common for people to go in and out.
“Really to take from a church or a place of worship I think could be perhaps the worst type of offending,” Singh said. “It’s very common for people to come on their way to work during the day, just pop in and, and come and pay respect and just meditate. And so it wasn’t an unusual activity.”
Singh said Sikhism teaches earning an honest living and giving to charity.
The stolen money would have gone to serving the Sikh community as well as other San Antonio organizations.
“Part of that offering is for our free kitchen. And part of that is for some of our community outreach programs. We are regularly doing things with Haven for Hope and the food bank here locally,” Singh said.
Singh hopes other religious organizations will step up their security.
“We don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” Singh said.
Since the theft, Sikh leaders have bolted their donation box to the ground and cleaned it out regularly.
If you have any information about the man on camera, call San Antonio police.