Florine Jenkins plays with her grandson Vincent at Midway Heights Baptist Church. Crime isn't common in this neighborhood.

"We've always felt very safe here," Jenkins said.

And churches used to be sacred.

"Unfortunately it does happen. I think some burglars perceive churches as being soft targets with many of the churches in the county," detective Tom O'Sullivan said.

In the span of just a few days, burglars hit Grandview Baptist Church, Locust Grove Methodist Church and Midway Heights Baptist Church. Burglars broke into Midway Baptist through the door using a crow-bar. In fact, they used the crow-bar with such force that it broke the dead bolt off, which was found the next morning in the hallway. The burglars resorted to this door after they tried breaking in through various windows and other doors on the outside of the church. Burglars hit the church four months ago.

Pastor David Schawo says the intruders took nothing and did only minor damage, but the break-in shows a lack of respect.

"When I first started preaching 41 years ago, we never locked our doors, even if we were in larger cities," Schawo said. "The church had the respect of the community and today they don't carry the same respect, but they (the burglars) don't have the respect for God."

Even so, Jenkins still feels safe and lets Vincent play.