Authorities: Raccoon Is Culprit In OKC Church Burglary

Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office said a masked, furry creature is to blame for breaking into an Oklahoma City church, rummaging through an office and stealing nothing but candies.

According to the Sheriff's office, just before 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 31, deputies responded a burglary call at the True Light Baptist Missionary Church, located in the 6700 block of N.E. 23rd Street in Oklahoma City.

Deputies arrived and spoke with the pastor, who took them to his office. Deputies said it was obvious that the space had been rummaged through.

The “burglar”, authorities said, managed to bypass the alarm system. Papers in the office had been shuffled through, picture frames had been knocked over, books were on the ground, and a trash can had been tossed. But deputies said the only thing missing were candies from a candy bowl.

According to the Sheriff's office, deputies initially didn't have any suspects in mind. So they offered extra patrols for the church and left. A short time later, deputies said they received another call from the church, and learned that someone was in the attic.

Deputies returned and said they could hear someone crawling around in the attic. A deputy grabbed a ladder and peeked into the attic.

“Using his flashlight he scanned, and then he came face-to-face, locked eyes with the masked church burglarizing bandit,” the Sheriff's office posted on its Facebook page. “The criminal's eyes glowed in the dark, the bandit made a run for it. But it was too late the burglar had been identified! It was a raccoon!”

Authorities believe the raccoon climbed through a crawl space down into the pastor's office and “burglarized” the space.

Deputies then told the pastor to contact the “furry fugitive team,” also known as animal control, to round up the creature.