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Arkansas church intruder spooked by alarm system sanitizes hands before escaping

A man made sure to sanitize his hands after breaking into a local church and getting spooked by the security system.

Longley Baptist Church was broken into Saturday evening around 1:40 p.m. 

Security cameras captured a man using a brick to break the window of their Family Life Center and get inside.

The man roamed the hallways until hearing the alarm system going off. 

He ran out of the nearest exit to escape, but not before using the hand sanitizer stand nearby. 

"I guess he wanted to be a clean criminal," said Dwight Townsend, the senior pastor.

He said he's glad no one was hurt. He was at home when he got the notification from their security alarm on his phone.

"It’s pretty disheartening to know that people are going to great lengths to break into a church. It just kind of shows our community is hurting. People are really hurting and that they will go to any lengths to get whatever they need or whatever they feel like they need to survive," said Townsend. 

James Franks is a church facilitator and had to board up the window with wood after the ordeal. He laughs at the thought of hand sanitizer being used in the break-in. 

"He went all around the building. On the video, you can see him trying so hard to snatch out the blinds to get through the window. That's how he cut himself when the police were taking samples of evidence." 

Little Rock Police Officer Eric Barnes said that robberies have gone down 8% since last year, but that people should still be aware, especially during the holidays. 

“If you see something, wait. Get security. Notify police. Just be very cognoscente of your surroundings," said Barnes.

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