NORTH CHARLESTON—Brother Ed Bergeron recently found the answer to the question “what’s behind door number one?” to be a rather dangerous one.
Brother Ed, of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, is the parish life facilitator at St. John Church and lives in the attached rectory. At about 8:30 p.m. on March 11, he was walking to the kitchen to put some ice in his Coke and heard noises coming from the church, he said. He opened the connecting door and to his surprise found an intruder standing there.
“I said ‘Buddy, you don’t want to tangle with me and I don’t want to tangle with you so you better be gone before the police arrive,’” he recalled.
Brother Ed then calmly stepped back, shut the door and locked it.
The police arrived minutes later thanks to a call by the school custodian who had seen the man and heard the break-in, Brother Ed said. The intruder was gone by then but left some clues for the crime scene team. The suspect had smashed the glass in the front door and reached in to unlock the deadbolt. In the process, he cut himself and police were able to get fingerprints and a blood sample, Brother Ed said.
Nothing was taken.
“There is nothing in the church other than pews and hymnbooks, so if he wants to spend time in prayer, he’s welcome,” said Brother Ed.
The composed parish life facilitator was not shaken by the experience and had the windows fixed the next day.
“God continues to take care of me,” he said.
