Burglary at another Melbourne Sikh temple

Thieves have struck at two different Sikh temples in Melbourne's west this week, making away with thousands of dollars from locked donation boxes.

Thieves stole cash from the donation box at the Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha Sikh Temple. Source: Supplied

A second Sikh temple in Melbourne has been broken into this week with the alleged burglars making away with thousands of dollars from the donation box.

A man and a woman broke into Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha Sikh temple, Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne’s west during the early hours on Wednesday and stole nearly $15,000.

“Normally we count the donations every week but because there had been some important events last week, we couldn’t do it. So, it was two weeks’ donations that they took away,” Harminder Singh, a member of the management committee of the Gurudwara told SBS Punjabi.

Surveillance cameras at the Sikh temple recorded a man and a woman entering the premises at 3:50 am on Wednesday and left with bags full of cash 25 minutes later.

“They first tried to cut the padlocks with small cutters but when it didn’t work, tried to rip open the small gap meant to put in donations. The man then went out and fetched a bigger cutter and cut open the locks,” Mr Singh said.

The video shows the pair stuffing cash into the tools bag they brought along. Once full, they used the fabric covers of musical instruments used in the Gurdwara to carry the cash.

Mr Singh says the police has been supplied the vision captured on surveillance camera “clearly shows” the faces of the alleged offenders. 

He says the Gurudwara committee had been in discussions to replace the donation box with a more secure one.

“After similar incidents at the Tarneit Gurudwara, we were thinking of changing the donation box to get one with concealed locks so that those couldn’t be cut open. But before we could do that, this has happened,” Mr Singh said.

Two masked men stole cash from the donation box inside the Tarneit Gurudwara on Monday morning. Source: Supplied

Earlier on Monday, another Sikh temple was broken into. Two masked men entered Tarneit Gurudwara Sahib during the early hours on Monday and stole cash from the donation box after cutting open the locks. This was the second time the same Gurudwara was targeted. In February this year, a donation box placed in an open area on the premises was stolen.

SBS Punjabi has contacted Victoria Police for a comment.

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