2 Teens Accused Of Vandalizing Muskogee Church

A Catholic church in Muskogee is still cleaning up after several teens vandalized the chapel.

Surveillance video shows the moments they emptied a fire extinguisher on the pews and even spit holy water onto the floor. Police made two arrests.

"It is what we call the Adoration Chapel," said Church Office Manager Lucille Ferguson.

The room at St. Joseph Catholic Church is a holy place.

"It has been blessed, so when a person comes into the chapel to pray they will open the tabernacle," said Ferguson.

The pews have heard thousands of prayers.

"It is our invitation to speak directly with God," said Ferguson.

Church employees said people have found God at their church.

"That is basically the purpose of this room, to contemplate," said Ferguson.

Ferguson said it only took vandals a few trips and a little under 60 minutes to do quite a bit of damage.

"It was so awful to see that someone could come in and just desecrate this space for no reason. It just broke all of our hearts," said Ferguson.

Surveillance video shows the vandals throwing around pew cushions, drinking holy water and then spitting it on the floor, emptying a fire extinguisher into the room and even trying to set the tabernacle on fire.

"Where does this kind of thinking come from? Children that age should be much purer," said Ferguson.

Ferguson said cameras caught the vandals in the chapel three times on Friday. Then again, less than 24 hours later.

"Saturday, after mass, they came back and they were trying to get into the chapel but we had just changed the code," said Ferguson.

She said it took a team of people to spot the vandals and then keep eyes on them until police arrived. Then another team of people to go back and clean the chapel up, wiping fire extinguisher foam off of candles and off pages of Bibles.

"I couldn't believe that we caught them so fast. It was like hallelujah! Thank you dear Lord," said Ferguson.