Police arrest suspect accused of burglarizing several churches in Fairfax County

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. - Police in Fairfax County have arrested a man who is accused of burglarizing multiple churches over a period of months.

Steven Hildner of Sterling is suspected in seven church burglaries total, investigators said. They added that the break-ins stretch back as far as April, with the most recent taking place just last week. They churches are in Burke, Fairfax Station, Chantilly, Annandale and Oakton.

"You would think those places are more of places, like safe spaces, right? So, just thinking that they get burglarized by folks, that doesn’t sit well with me," said Jouhn Borja, who lives near Annandale Calvary Church, one of the locations that police said was hit in August.

"To be quite honest, I’m not necessarily surprised," added Metropolitan Protective Services President and CEO Derrick Parks.

That’s largely because burglars have targeted many places of worship before. For instance, FOX 5 told viewers about a Silver Spring church that was burglarized in March. A man was also accused of stealing an air conditioning unit from a District Heights church just last month.

Parks said there are two main reasons why. First, churches are often unoccupied for much of the week. Also, they may not have much security either.

"For the average church, you don’t really see a high volume of trained security professionals," Parks explained. "The reality of the situation is churches become soft targets."

Attempts to reach a representative of Hildner for comment Monday were not immediately successful.