Local media reported that Father Peter Rayder, the pastor of the church, said the fake priest “must have done his research because he knew their names, used vocabulary a priest would, and knew where to go.”
“He’s a vulture, he’s a vulture, gypsy, he knows what he’s doing,” Rayder told network WABC.
Diocese of Brooklyn spokesman John Quaglione told CNA on Thursday morning that the scammer “made another attempt in the Diocese of Brooklyn in October at St. Thomas Aquinas in Flatlands.”
“At that time, he also said that he was a visiting priest who left his keys in the rectory,” Quaglione said. “The sacristan called the pastor who informed him that he had no visitors, so they told him to wait, but the guy left.”
The crook also reportedly targeted the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville’s motherhouse on Long Island earlier in March, where he also claimed to be a priest.