Police are searching for a man who was caught on surveillance video as he ran up from behind an 80-year-old parishioner outside a church and stole a bag containing weekly offerings.
The robbery was reported Jan. 12 as a group left The Church of the Assumption in Boyle Heights. A surveillance camera captured a man run between cars in the parking lot and swipe the bag from the man before running out of view.
The victim tried to hang on to the bag, containing cash, coins and checks that totaled about $4,100, and tumbled to the ground. He was treated for injuries at the scene.
The camera shows the robber waiting in the parking lot for about 45 minutes before the heist, police said. The man, wearing a black hat, dark jacket and light colored pants, appeared to have a cellphone to his ear before he sprinted from behind the man, who was about the place the bag in the trunk of a car.
The robber got into the passenger seat of a late model black sedan after the robbery. A detailed description of the vehicle was not available.
