Church thief sentenced to prison

GROVE CITY, PA

A thief who broke into a pair of Mercer County churches was sentenced to serve between nine and 23 months in prison on two counts of burglary Thursday.

Police said Zion Scriven, 19, of Slippery Rock, broke into Tower Presbyterian Church and Galilean Baptist Church in February. Scriven did $1,400 worth of damage inside Tower Presbyterian Church and stole a gift card and $8.00 in cash.

At Galilean Baptist Church, Scriven broke into a safe, forced drawers open and cut power to the building. According to Grove City police, Scriven did not take anything from the church.

Scriven left a note for the pastor at Galilean Baptist, which read “I was going to kill you, but I decided to shut off the power instead. Take care pastor.” and was signed with a smiley face.

Officers managed to obtain a fingerprint from the notepad Scriven used for the threatening message, which ultimately led to his arrest.