A man accused of posing as a priest to steal money may have also stolen from churches in Dallas and Houston.
In New York, police said the suspect stole $900 from a church in Queens.
The church’s priest said the suspect told him he was visiting from a church in Rome, so he invited him into the rectory. He said the man knew what to say and where to go.
“It’s sad. It’s very sad that someone is going to come in to any house of worship and just violate everybody,” Father Peter Rayder from the American Martyrs Roman Catholic Church said.
The man reportedly stole the $900 from the priest’s unlocked bedroom.
Police and the dioceses in Houston and Dallas sent out warnings about similar crimes by a suspect who could be the same man. They said he calls himself either “Father Martin” or “Father Guillermo.”
He was even caught on surveillance cameras in Dallas wearing similar clothes as the New York incident.
In October, the Catholic Diocese of Dallas warned its parishioners to watch out for a man claiming to be “Father Martin.”
