Intruder is crushed by 3,000lb safe!

A man's look back on his family life after 44 years.

This past week Atlee Church has been hosting 43 homeless women.

It is always a joy getting to know the ladies.

This one particular lady came up to me last night to say she had a story to tell me.

It was a story about a man who broke into a church to steal the safe in the office.

She got the story from her husband.

She had spoken to her husband, Rickey Massenberg about where she was staying for the week.

He asked her for more details and it was at that point, he told her that his father had died at that church trying to steal a safe.

As soon as she told me I was in a state of shock.

Back in July one of my fellow pastors had sent me the following article from the Free Lance Star paper that dated back 44 years!

Read article below.

News Article

Last night I told Rickey's wife that the murder weapon was still in the office.

I took her to see it.

Then this morning Rickey left me a voice mail asking if we could get together.

I went downtown to pick him up.

I brought him to the church.

He shared with me stories about his father and how strong of a man he was.

His father stood some 6' 5"+ tall and as Rickey described him, "he didn't have a six-pack, but a twelve pack".

Rickey was describing his dad's abs. 

At one point his father could lift 1,100 pounds above his head three times in a row.

I got to hear a lot about his family life.

When we got to the safe he was taken back by the flood of memories he had of his father.

He never thought he would see the day that he would see the safe that killed his dad.

His Dad died two days before his birthday.

Rickey and his wife both said to me that his dad "never should have tried to steal from the house of the Lord".