Metro

‘Stealing from God’

It’s unholy!

Two fiends were arrested after they were caught stealing supplies donated to Hurricane Sandy victims from a Staten Island church, cops said yesterday.

Edwin Rios, 46, and William Banks, 43, were spotted opening a gate to the rear parking lot on Richmond Road and driving a U-Haul truck inside shortly before 2:15 a.m. Friday, police said.

They were cuffed nearby on Targee Street with 35 cases of bottled water that had been stored next to the church sanctuary wall, authorities said.

“They’re stealing from God, because God brought it in, so to speak, to give to people,” said the Rev. Dr. John Rocco Carlo, 69, a retired NYPD captain.

The pastor said police had been staking out the Christian Pentecostal Church in Concord, which is one of four relief-supply hubs on Staten Island, after a series of storm-related burglaries.

He said crooks had struck six or seven times — and grabbed between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of goods.

Carlo said the church filed complaints after the burglaries, but the issue got more attention after he spoke to Staten Island’s Assistant Chief Kevin Ward during a funeral at the church.

Rios and Banks were charged with petit larceny, criminal trespassing and criminal possession of stolen property following the water-bottle heist.

Banks was also charged with operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license. He had recently been arrested on Jan. 12 on a drug-possession charge.

Police said they are investigating whether Rios and Banks are responsible for other burglaries at the church last year.

Carlo thinks more than two people are involved in the unholy heists — and that the pair could be part of a larger group.

He said that members of the church had chased thieves out of the lot several times — even on Thanksgiving. The last burglary was on New Year’s Eve.

The church has surveillance cameras, but the crooks wore hooded sweatshirts and their faces could not be made out, he added.

Stolen items ranged from Snuggies and cough medicine to rakes, shovels and cleaning supplies. The church began moving the supplies indoors, but theft was still a problem.

Between 30 and 40 organizations rely on the church, which received almost 800 tons of supplies from all over the country, as well as internationally. They have helped thousands of Hurricane Sandy victims.

“If you need it, come,” said Carlo. “Don’t steal.”

Sandy victims have been targets of crime in other parts of the city as well, such as Queens.

Many residents in Breezy Point found that thieves had looted their storm-damaged homes after the Thanksgiving holiday in a rash of burglaries.

And in The Rockaways, members of the devastated community have faced crooks clawing through their residences for scrap metal, stealing copper wires and boilers. Wood was also stolen from the boardwalk.

The NYPD cracked down on these vultures, stopping drivers with rented box trucks that had out-of-state plates and were suspected of carrying stolen items.