Chicago crime: At least $9K in donations stolen from St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, police say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Thousands of dollars were stolen overnight Monday from a church in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Chicago's North Side.

Chicago police said someone pried open a window at Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Church at Webster and Sheffield. Once inside, they took money from a safe and a donation bin.

"It's a big loss for the church," said Father Christopher Robinson, an instructor of religious studies at DePaul University. "Christmas is one of our biggest days."

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The holiday heist took place the day after Christmas. The St. Vincent De Paul Church in Lincoln Park is now at a loss of an estimated $9,000 or more in donations. Church staff came in Tuesday morning to find damage all over the building.

"It was immediately clear something was off," Robinson said. "Doors open that shouldn't be open, blinds where they came in through the window were all disheveled."

Father Robinson says more than 500 people attended Mass over the Christmas weekend, marking the first completely normal celebration after years of dealing with the pandemic.

Now, the robbery is impacting many church services, like a soup kitchen which feeds the homeless three times a week.

"To lose this kind of collection means our outreach, our homeless outreach, is diminished," Robinson said. "Our education programs, our arts and music programs, the things we do just keeping the lights on - it's a huge hit."

The suspect certainly left his mark on the church. There's some visible damage on a door where the suspect likely tried to break in at first, before moving onto a window they believe he pried open before going on to damage even more parts of the church.

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Robinson said there are a number of surveillance cameras on DePaul's campus that may help find the suspect and that evidence is currently being pieced together.

At this point, police haven't released information about a suspect but Robinson says some video shows one man who may be responsible. He's hoping that person will come forward to work this out.

"One of the first steps again is anger, but I'm just sad," Robinson said. "I'd rather look for a way to solve this rather than punish."