Church robbed of unrecorded Sunday offerings

An unidentified man robbed the collection plate during Mass at St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church in Drexel Hill yesterday morning.

With a ski mask and sunglasses covering his face, the man burst into the church as a 16-year-old altar boy was taking the collection plate into the rectory, said Upper Darby Township Police Superintendent Michael J. Chitwood.

The robber then ran out of the church in the direction of a trolley stop half a block away, according to several eyewitnesses.

In a trash can next to a trolley shelter, police found the sunglasses and mask.

The money in the collection plate had not been counted, and Chitwood said he had no estimate on how much was taken.

The robber is described as a man in his 20s, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, of slight build.