A suspect in the theft of donations from a church was detained in the Moscow region.

Police have detained a suspect in the theft of donations from the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Podyachevo, Moscow region. This was announced on April 4 by the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Irina Volk in Telegram.

She clarified that a 50-year-old resident of Podolsk, being in the temple, approached the icon of the saint, opened the kiosk, unnoticed, took the jewelry donated by parishioners and disappeared.

"The total amount of damage was about 300 thousand rubles. As a result of operational search measures, the police identified the person involved and detained him. During the search, some of the stolen jewelry was seized," the report says.

Investigators have opened a criminal case under Part 3 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Theft on an especially large scale"). The man was taken into custody.

At the end of December 2024, the police detained a resident of Izhevsk, who in 2024 was stealing valuables from temples in Udmurtia. The investigation found that between January and September 2024, the attacker entered churches disguised as a parishioner, talked with the clergy and lit candles, and then took the valuables that caught his eye and left.