BALTIMORE — The Rev. Loretta Ewell-Johnson sighed in exasperation as she pointed to a hole in the wall where light used to cascade through a stained-glass window at St. Paul United Methodist Church.
Sixteen stained-glass windows — some containing dedications to parishioners — have been stolen this summer from St. Paul. The latest thefts were discovered Wednesday.
"It's just amazing that they would come into the church and steal windows that have been part of the church since 1913," Ewell-Johnson said.
Police blame drug addicts living in this blighted neighborhood who sell stained-glass windows to antique and secondhand shops to finance their habits.
About one in eight adults in Baltimore has a drug problem, according to the city health department.
Stealing stained glass to buy drugs is not new in the city with the country's highest rate of heroin addiction. Baltimore's row houses, where stained glass dates to the early 20th century, have been losing windows for years.
But the thieves have only recently begun to target churches.
"An individual cannot expect to be blessed by stealing from the house of God," said the Rev. David Butler, who wants to buy St. Paul Church for his Foundation for Life Ministries. "By stealing, you're bringing a curse on yourself."
Baltimore isn't the only place where thieves have set their sights on valuable church windows.
In Rochester, N.Y., police charged a man with stealing three stained-glass windows, valued at about $4,500, from the 94-year-old Grace United Methodist Church. Officer Scott Peters said the thefts were drug-related.
A thief targeted 101-year-old Buckland Memorial Chapel in Pontiac, Mich., last year, stealing seven cathedral-style windows valued at $4,000 each.
In both cases, the windows were recovered.
Perhaps the most notorious stained-glass theft case was in New York, where an expert on Tiffany windows was convicted in 1999 of working with a graveyard bandit to sell art stolen from cemeteries over a 15-year period.
Thieves sell stained-glass windows, valued at about $300 apiece, to stores for about $50. The stores can sell them for up to $500 to builders, collectors and people remodeling their homes.
"A lot of people want the stained glass, and they are paying a pretty penny for it," said Baltimore Detective Derrick Layton, who said about half of the burglaries he investigates involve stained glass.
Bill Bird, executive director of the Art Glass Suppliers Association, said churches are easy targets because they often don't protect the windows or register them with insurance companies.
Ewell-Johnson said she had never heard of stained-glass thefts before burglars struck St. Paul. To date, only three of the 16 windows have been recovered, she said.
"I don't blame the people for stealing the windows. The behavior is driven by drugs and a lack of jobs," Ewell-Johnson said.
"Some of them are getting to the point where they're at their last straw," she added.