The front door to Christ Lutheran Church was slightly ajar when the church’s janitor, George Lara, came to work at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Things were missing, too — several laptop computers, digital picture frames and a cash box. The thieves even snatched up ice cream sandwiches and some butter from a church refrigerator.

The crime upset 38-year-old Lara, who also teaches boxing at the Newhall Community Center.

“You get angry when people take things, especially from a church,” Lara said. “I know how times are hard, but you don’t steal from a church.”

So he made sure they didn’t.

Lara and church staff were checking through each of the church’s buildings to see what had been taken when they noticed something suspicious: A man wearing a hooded sweatshirt was peering through the window of the church’s education building.

Lara took off after the man, and the chase was on.

“I know it was a dumb thing to do,” Lara said. “But this guy needed to be caught.”
It didn’t take long for Lara to grab the suspected burglar, who later confessed to church staff that he and another man had broken into the church, Lara said.

Moments later, Lara noticed a suspicious-looking car in the nearby Mulligan’s Restaurant and Bar parking lot. Inside were all the stolen goods, including the laptop computers — and even the ice cream sandwiches, said church office manager Linda Bonar.

But before deputies arrested the man, he ran off.

Lara wasn’t about to let him get away.

This time, the man made it a few blocks away. He knocked on a woman’s door, pleading for her to let him in because Lara was after him.

The suspect didn’t make it inside. The boxer subdued him again on the front lawn of the woman’s home.
Deputies arrived minutes later to arrest the man.

Authorities are still searching for a second suspect, said Sgt. James Anderson of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Anderson refused to release the name or age of the man arrested.

After a hard morning’s work, Lara went to teach kids to box at the Newhall Community Center on Wednesday afternoon. The Hart High School graduate said he hoped the man he caught learns from his mistake.

“I told him, ‘I don’t want to hurt you; just give up,’” Lara recalled. “I hope this kid learns his lesson and straightens his life out.”