A heartless thief stole cash from a poor box at a Catholic Church just days before Christmas.

Reverend Harry Reitzel opened Stella Maris, in St. George’s, early on Tuesday morning so parishioners could decorate the church for Christmas. The parishioners and priest left the church at noon.

Father Reitzel usually leaves the church open throughout the day, so people can come in and pray when they want to.

When he returned at 3.15 p.m. he found that someone had pried the ornate wooden box by the church’s door open and taken cash.

The box, known to parishioners as the church’s “poor box” because its contents are used to help needy families, sat inside the church’s door.

“The upsetting thing is that there was not a lot of money in it and it will cost more to fix than the thief got,” Father Reitzel said. “Someone took a crow bar to it and probably didn’t get much, there is less money when the cruise ship tourists aren’t in.

“We have only been robbed twice in the seven years I have been here so we are lucky. Other churches cannot leave their doors open for worship throughout the day because there have been so many robberies.”