Burglar breaks into Daly City mosque twice to steal cash

DALY CITY, Calif. - Surveillance video shows a man breaking into the Daly City Islamic Center twice to steal cash donations.

On his first visit May 2, "he breaks into the door. He went inside, he also breaks into the office," said mosque president Nabil Fara. He ended up stealing about $1,000 in cash donations.

But that wasn’t the last of him. The same man came back to the mosque on Tuesday morning, and he even stopped to look at pictures of himself posted outside the mosque. He didn't even flinch.

"That’s the time he saw his picture. And he was like making fun of it or something like that," Fara said.

He didn’t seem to care. So he went around to the back again and noticed that there were now two locks at the rear door. So he jimmied open a window and climbed inside.

He ended up on the second floor prayer room and stole more money.

"When I walked in, I saw all the donation boxes totally open," Fara said.

In both cases, the intruder forced his way inside in between two morning prayers. Each day, there are five prayer sessions.

Fara says the man will get what's coming to him for stealing from a house of worship.

"Even when he took the money from here, God will take it from him in a different way," Fara said. "He did not steal it like from rich people or something like that, he’s taking it from the hand of God."

Fara says the irony is that if the man had gone to the mosque to ask for money, they would have helped him out.

"The money we get is to pay the rent, pay the electric, pay this, pay this, but we are able to help if he needs help, if he come to us in a nice way," Fara said.

But because he did not come to them in a nice way, the mosque wants justice – and hopes he doesn’t come back a third time.

Fara said the same man is also suspected of similar break-ins at mosques in South San Francisco, San Francisco and - right before his second visit in Daly City - one in Mill Valley.