Whoever stole a big trailer full of church supplies from the parking lot in the Langley Fine Arts School parking lot had to work hard to do it.
First, they had to get past the heavy-duty lock that kept it in place and then, tow it away with a wheel lock still attached to one of the tires.
“They took an angle grinder or something and cut right through it (the lock),” said Tyson Kliem, Lead Pastor at the Fraser Point Church which holds services every Sunday at the Chief Sepass Theatre in the school at 9096 Trattle Street in Fort Langley.
A person from the church actually spotted the trailer being taken away the evening of Tuesday, May 1.
It was all over the road, moving erratically as it was being driven away.
“They thought, that was weird, so they sent me a text saying, ‘hey, is somebody borrowing the trailer? And I said, ‘no, it’s 10:30 at night. I think somebody stole it’,” Pastor Kliem told The Times.
“We came down here, and it was gone.”
The trailer contained thousands of dollars of toys, signs and equipment for the church “kids environments.”
“This is a lot of stuff that can’t be easily replaced,” Kliem said.
The contents included carts to haul supplies, a sign to put up on the street to let people know where the service is being held, and other “nick-knack items” like the paper plates for the breakfasts for church volunteers
“It’s unfortunate that someone was desperate enough to go through all the effort to cut our locks and steal stuff that will (only) turn a small financial gain,” Kliem said.
The theft was a poor reward for a church that, last November, gave over $30,000 to organizations that benefit the community.
Those funds went toward helping men and women in recovery, sponsoring a refugee family for a year, providing strollers, nutrition and transportation assistance to dozens of single mothers, sending a number of high school students to camp and covering the annual venue rental costs for a high school support group.
After the theft, almost instantly, there were offers to help replace the supplies and ensure the children’s programs continued.
“Other churches were calling, asking how they could help,” Kliem said.
“We had a lot of people praying.”
The next night, there was a surprise.
The Langley RCMP called to say they had located the trailer, five kilometres away, abandoned at a construction site on 88 Avenue.
The pastor was expecting the worst when he went to have a look, anticipating the trailer would be ripped apart and “everything looted.”
He was amazed by what he found.
“Not one lock was opened. The doors were all closed. We just had to hitch it up and bring it back.”
The trailer was somewhat the worse for wear, however.
The attached wheel lock had carved a deep gouge into the meal around the tire before it came apart, and the top vent on the trailer roof was broken.
“That’s probably how they looked into the trailer and realized it wasn’t worth cutting into it,” a pleased and grateful Kliem said.
He won’t speculate whether the thief or thieves realized they’d stolen church supplies and had an attack of conscience.
Kliem is simply happy that the prayers of the church members were answered, in time for the next Sunday services.
The trailer is back in the parking lot, with a fresh wheel lock.
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dan.ferguson@langleytimes.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
