Po­lice moved in at the Heights of Gua­napo yes­ter­day, ar­rest­ing three loot­ers at the Light­house of the Lord Je­sus Christ church. The thieves are ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore an Ari­ma Mag­is­trate on Mon­day, charged with lar­ce­ny. North­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force of­fi­cers who were on pa­trol around 5 am spot­ted the thieves, po­lice said. Up to late yes­ter­day evening, the men were be­ing held at the Ari­ma Po­lice Sta­tion.

Loot­ers cut open two con­tain­ers on the com­pound and re­moved hinges, bolts and doors. Yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, a truck was parked a short dis­tance away from the com­pound, with a weld­ing gas tank loot­ed from the church in the tray. There was a pile of scaf­fold­ing on the ground. Po­lice pa­trols have been stepped up, af­ter com­plaints by At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan.

Res­i­dents re­port­ed see­ing an army truck on the com­pound around 8 am yes­ter­day morn­ing with of­fi­cers on pa­trol. Two of­fi­cers from the Ari­ma Po­lice Sta­tion were al­so at the site for most of the day. They said they were await­ing act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice James Philbert who was ex­pect­ed to vis­it the site. The of­fi­cers left around 3 am when Philbert did not show up.

Philbert was out of the coun­try, the Guardian learned. Deputy Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams is act­ing as the CoP. At a post-Cab­i­net press con­fer­ence on Thurs­day af­ter­noon, Ram­lo­gan ac­cused Philbert of de­clin­ing to act on loot­ing and oth­er acts of law­less­ness at the church. How­ev­er, there have been ques­tions con­cern­ing the own­er­ship of the prop­er­ty and the own­er mak­ing a re­port of theft at the site.