Tea, milk and butter stolen from Sheffield church which has been burgled "over ten times"

A Sheffield church which has been burgled “over ten times” has again been broken into, with basic food and drink items stolen this time.

St James Church, on Tithe Barn Lane in Woodhouse, had milk, tea, crisps and butter stolen during a break-in this week.

Locals have guessed at the perpetrators being “kids”, or “someone desperate”, and noted that they could have gone in and gotten the items for free most days.

One commenter said: “That is the lowest of the low, robbing from a church.”

It is not the first time this year the community at the church have faced issues, as a 170-year-old stained glass window was smashed during an earlier incident in January of this year.

That was the fourth break-in in a year.

The community rallied round to help the church pay for repairs.

Reverend June Fox said told The Star previously: “It has made me realise what we mean to the community, we’ve had such generous people drop by just to offer us money and support.”

Locals have suggested CCTV, warning signs, or even a dog to combat the spate of break-ins.

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St James was considering upping their security after the January incident, and debated installing security shutters.

Rev. Fox added: “We can’t do that; we don’t want a church to look like a fortress but we don’t know what to do.”

The most recent incident is reported to have occurred between Tuesday morning (May 7) and 8.45am on May 8.

South Yorkshire Police encourages anyone with information to contact them on 101, quoting incident number 514 of May 8.