A San Jose man is facing charges for raiding South Bay houses of worship and making off with hefty amounts of donation money, according to officials. Jaime Gutierrez Flores, 33, was nabbed this weekend at a local church and is now accused of burglarizing multiple religious sites, says the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
The alleged serial sacrilege spans at least eight burglaries, with Flores also charged for assaulting a Sunnyvale cop by barreling a stolen car toward them after hitting a Hindu temple, which he targeted three times in under a month. The investigation is still searching for accomplices who might have joined Flores in this string of felonious forays.
In a statement obtained by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, Jeff Rosen, the District Attorney, conveyed the community's contempt for these violations of sacred spaces. "Our schools, our homes, our places of worship, are special and sacred places and when they are invaded by criminals it feels as though our whole community has been violated," he stated. "Our Office will hold this criminal, and anyone who acted with him, fully responsible to the law."
Reports detail that Gutierrez Flores engaged in a spree of thefts late at night, plundering cash donations and leaving behind a trail of damage. Among the reported incidents, he and another man lifted $1,805 in property, including cash donations from a Santa Clara church and about $25,000 from a temple in Sunnyvale over two consecutive evenings. Flores's bail was set at $1 million during his arraignment yesterday, with his next court date slated for March 22.
