Dozens of local policemen from Constanta, a city in Eastern Romania, were locked in churches overnight to keep the donation boxes safe from the thieves who kept stealing the money inside these wooden boxes. The policemen's unions didn't like the idea and complained to the Interior Ministry, according to local Digi24.

The local authorities in Constanta decided to take this unusual measure due to the high number of church robberies. For example, a church from Constanta's Poarta 6 neighborhood has been robbed 14 times. The latest robbery took place last weekend, when the thieves stole nearly RON 50 (some EUR 11) from the donation box.

In fact, in all these cases of robbery, the thieves only stole the money from the donation boxes, also known as Cutia Milei (the Mercy Box), not the icons or other religious objects.

The priests could have emptied the boxes overnight, but the authorities wanted to catch the thieves while they were trying to steal the money, so they sent police officers to keep an eye on the donation boxes inside the churches during the night.

The police unionists don’t like the solution found in this case, and say that the policemen were locked inside the churches. However, the priests disagree, and say that the police officers had the key to the church, and they were able to leave whenever they wanted.

The unionists also say that the procedure was also broken, as the policemen were sent to these churches alone, not in teams. This means that the priests could have blamed the policemen if something went missing from the churches, as there were no other witnesses. However, according to the spokesperson of Constanta County Police Inspectorate, in addition to each policeman inside the church, there was another one patrolling outside.

The unionists decided to complain about the situation to the Interior Ministry. Meanwhile, representatives of the Church asked priests to no longer leave money inside the donation boxes overnight.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com