Pastor Boli Zhang Says His Home Was Ransacked: 30 Years of Keepsakes Gone, and Police Asked Him, "Who Have You Offended?"
Boli Zhang, senior pastor of Harvest Chinese Christian Church, said on his program on July 17 that his home was burglarized on Sunday, July 12, and that nearly 30 years of treasured keepsakes were stolen, leaving the house in shambles. He had left early that morning to preach and discovered the break-in when he returned that evening. According to Zhang, the first question the responding officer asked him after seeing the scene was: "Who have you offended?"
Zhang said he preaches every Sunday without exception. On July 12 he left home at 8:45 a.m., served at the church in Ontario in the morning and preached at the Arcadia branch at 4 p.m., and got home at 7:30 p.m. He said he forgot to set the burglar alarm when he left — "a fatal mistake," in his words — though the doors and windows were locked. When he walked in, the dog that should have been outside was inside the house, and the hallway was strewn with clothes and belongings; he knew at once that something was wrong.
According to Zhang, the intruders came in from the backyard, smashed the tempered-glass sliding door of the master bedroom, pried open his study, ripped out the home network and carried off the surveillance system's hard drive, leaving the recordings from the home's four cameras unrecoverable. A metal filing cabinet was forced open, and nearly every drawer, closet, suitcase, backpack and storage box in every room had been opened, with clothes, files and personal items scattered across the floor. He said police believed the intruders had spent at least two to three hours inside, that there may have been more than one of them, and that the work was "very professional."
Taken were more than a dozen watches he had collected over more than a decade, including watches given to him by Pastor Stephen Tong and by the president of a seminary in Taiwan; nearly all of his wife's jewelry was stolen, including the couple's wedding rings; foreign currency he had kept from years of travel and cash set aside for home repairs were also nearly all gone. His wife's wedding dress was at first thought stolen too; Zhang corrected himself on his program the next day, saying the dress had been found in a corner of a closet, dragged out of its suitcase and trampled by the intruders. He said his wife, who had been away in the East, still cannot bring herself to enter the master bedroom or her own study. He first thought his two guns had been stolen as well, but officers found them inside the house — one tossed into a pile of clutter, the other under a bed — neither had been taken. Zhang said police believed the intruders deliberately left the guns and anything with electronic tracking alone so as not to escalate the case.
What puzzled him most, Zhang said, was that his home held no fortune. He said people had been calling for days and "may be disappointed — we don't have gold bars or big savings at home"; most of what was taken were keepsakes of sentimental value. He has lived in the house for more than a decade, and the collection represented 30 years of memories.
The officer's second question, Zhang said, was: "Who knows where your home is?" Zhang said that as a pastor his home is open to his congregation — hundreds of people know it; the church meets at his home, guests are invited for meals, and people come to his door asking for prayer; there is no way to keep it private. He said he has treated people kindly all his life and cannot think of anyone he has offended — unless it is his years of criticizing China's religious policies and speaking up for persecuted house churches in China. He stated plainly, however, that he has no evidence the burglary was the work of the Chinese government: "I haven't said that either." He was simply laying out his questions.
Zhang said he called the police that night and officers arrived about 40 minutes later. He said he has also reported the matter to the U.S. Congress and the FBI and will write to the State Department, arguing that political asylees deserve America's protection. He said he will not stop speaking out: "They stole some of my property; they cannot steal my faith." The belongings, he said, are worldly things — "just a week of cleaning up, that's all."
Source: Boli Zhang's Talk Program
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：张伯笠牧师在其节目中讲述自家遭入室盗窃。节目视频截图。 / Photo: Pastor Boli Zhang recounting the burglary of his home on his program. Video still.
