AUSTIN, Texas — Money was stolen from right outside two Austin churches at different times, but in the same way. Both churches are trying to figure out how this happened.
Evelyn Gardner is the bookkeeper for Covenant United Methodist Church in North Austin. She said back in January, people on the church's staff realized there was a discrepancy between the money sent by some of the members and what the church was receiving.
"There were people that had given us money and we never received it," Gardner said.
What Gardner and her staff had discovered was that nine to 10 of the automatic checks sent by members' banks never got to the church. They also all were supposed to arrive to the mailbox on the same day.
"Then, later on, there were nine or 10 checks that we actually wrote to vendors to pay our bills that were taken from the mailbox," Gardner said.
That accounts for 18-20 checks that Gardner said were worth about $12,000 that had been stolen from the mailbox. Gardner said they didn't realize that second set of checks had been stolen until the church received some letters in the mail.
"We didn't realize those had been stolen until they're sending us notices saying we hadn't paid our bill," Gardner said. "That's a hard hit for this church."
Gardner and her team are working with their bank to try and get this money back through the fraud department. That's an ongoing process that is taking time, while they write new checks to pay for their bills.
Rod Bliss is the finance chairman for the Covenant United Methodist Church, overseeing the budget and working to set up ways to give to the church. Finding out about losing these checks caught him by surprise.
"You get a text from Evelyn, saying, 'We had our checks stolen,'" Bliss said. "I'm like, 'What?' I feel like I've let them down that we have to put changes in place to protect their funds as well."
Bliss worked with his team to put a locked mailbox out front that won't allow people to see or get to mail put in their mailbox.
"We must have a key to get our mail out," Bliss said. "We feel like it's protected. Even though we have a way to deposit for the mailman in terms of sending mail out, we don't feet safe. So when it comes to that, we go to the post office."
Westlake United Methodist Church is in southwest Austin and also looking to make some similar changes in the near future. Tracey Beadle is the senior pastor at the church, and says someone recently stole nine to 10 checks last month – in the same way.
"This makes me feel very frustrated, and it makes me feel very sad," Beadle said. "The images of the cleared checks from their banks were there. We knew at that point that this was an issue."
Beadle said her staff is no longer accepting mail at their address. They are going to the post office to get mail while a locked mailbox is put in place.
"We've followed up with everyone that this affects," Beadle said. "It's disturbing to realize that money has been stolen."
For Gardner, she hopes this doesn't happen to any other churches.
"Maybe this message can get to the community and save someone with what we've had to deal with," Gardner said.
The churches are unable to help their members get the money back as the banks have to do that. Each member is going through the fraud department of their specific bank to try and get reimbursed.
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