BALTIMORE  Police are searching for a man who held a gun to a church secretary's head, forcing a parish priest to open a safe and hand over thousands of dollars.
The Baltimore Sun reported no one was injured during the daylight robbery at Shrine of the Little Flower Roman Catholic Church Oct. 13.
"This is the first time anything close to this has ever happened here," said the Rev. Michael J. Orchik. "It was rather brazen, but could have been worse."
Police said the robbery occurred at about 8:45 a.m. when a man knocked on the rectory door and asked for information about the church's school and how to donate clothes.
When the secretary returned with a brochure describing a clothing drive, the man pulled a gun, police said.
Orchik said he rushed to the front hallway when he heard the secretary scream. The man pointed the gun at the secretary, Orchik and a cleaning lady, and demanded money, the newspaper reported.
After removing about $400 from a safe, the robber herded the church workers downstairs to another safe in the basement, Orchik said.
The man threatened to shoot the secretary when Orchik had difficulty locating a piece of paper with the safe's combination.
"You find that thing in five seconds or she is going to get it," Orchik said the robber told him. "He led us to believe he was going to shoot."
Once the safe was opened, the man took cash and checks totaling about $7,100 raised from donations and Sunday's collections, the newspaper reported.
