UPDATE:
OZARK, Ala. (WDHN) —Police have found a stolen church bus that went missing almost a month ago.
Harvest Free Will Baptist Church’s bus went missing in late June.
On Sunday, the church bus was located in Pike County and will now be returned to the church.
Ozark Police Chief Charles Ward says that no arrests have been made at this time.
Stick with WDHN News as we continue to follow this story.
OZARK, Ala. (WDHN) — Tuesday morning, Pastor Bobby Peters arrived at church and noticed their church bus was missing from the parking lot — believing someone stole it.
“I don’t know why they wanna pick on our bus, it’s not new by a long shot,” Pastor Peters said. It’s kind of aggravating that people don’t have any respect for godly things.”
It’s a yellow 2003 Chevy minibus with the bible book ‘Psalm 1’ above the windshield and backdoor and harvest church and school on both sides.
“We use it on Wednesday nights and on Sunday mornings and sometimes at night on Sunday and we use it for school activities so it’s not just idle,” Pastor Peters said.
Now the church is having to knock the dust off one of its ‘idle’ buses like this white one to hopefully provide transportation for its members.
Pastor Peters said his church has been a target a few times in the past like break-ins and having a catalytic converter stolen.
It’s making him question their security measures.
“We have the cameras down at the school but we don’t have any up here, we talked about it several times about putting some up here in the parking lot, we needed one the other night I reckon,” Peters said.
Although it’s a huge loss for the church, he said it’s also a lesson learned — in the past they would keep the key in the bus, but they are going to think more carefully now.
“I guess whoever got in figured out it was in there, so they didn’t have to tear up nothing to get it, so we might have to hang ’em up in here,” He said
Pastor Peters said if you see the bus traveling in the local area, please call the church or the Ozark Police Department.