Fridges, deep fryers and more worth up to $60K stolen from Greek Festival church
Up to $60,000 worth of equipment — including multiple refrigerators — has been stolen from Columbia’s Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, according to the Columbia Police Department.
The stolen equipment includes multiple refrigerators, deep freezers, deep fryers, cooling tables and food warming sets, which the church says are crucial to Columbia’s Greek Festival, according to the police department.
The annual Greek Festival is one of the city’s largest events and is known to draw tens of thousands of visitors over four days each fall.
“The victims tell CPD that the stolen items were more valuable .than the cost of the merchandise” because they are needed for the festival, the department’s news release added.
Police responded to a storage facility on Gregg Street last month to find the tens of thousands of dollars of equipment stolen.
The Columbia Police Department’s Property Crimes Unit is investigating the incident and reports that “valuable evidence” has been collected from one of the crime scenes.
Nick Callas, a spokesman for the Greek church, said Tuesday that the approximate value of the stolen restaurant grade items is: 15 fryers ($1,450 each), seven refrigerators ($900 each), seven food warmer stands ($1,450 each), three cooling tables ($3,500 each), and large freezer chests (about $2,000 each), among other things.
“They left the heavy things,” Callas said, adding that weighty grills and ovens were not taken.
The equipment taken was in good working order and could potentially be sold on a secondary market, he said.
All the equipment not taken has now been removed and stored in an undisclosed, secure location, Callas said.
If there’s a hidden blessing in the theft, it’s that the church still has plenty of time to either recover the stolen items or buy new ones before this year’s four-day Green Festival in late September, Callas said.
This year’s Festival will be its 35th year, where more than 100,000 people of all ages annually come, people-watch, buy jewelry, see Greek dances, eat Greek foods and pastries, move to Greek music and of course eat delectables such as souvlaki, spanakopita and dolmades, according to news accounts of the event.
“The festival is seven months away so when the time comes, we will be up and running,” Callas said.
Police ask anyone with information to contact Crimestoppers at 888-CRIME-SC or at midlandscrimestoppers.com.
