A infamous faux priest who left a path of doubt and disbelief among the many trustworthy he’s accused of swindling from coast to coast will quickly face judgment in Riverside County, sheriff’s officers say.
For months, Malin Rostas, aka “Father Martin,” donned black garb and confirmed up at Catholic church buildings throughout the U.S. and Canada claiming to be “a visiting priest from Chicago,” in keeping with investigators.
However when his all-too-trusting hosts would go away him alone within the rectory — a priest’s private quarters subsequent to the church — investigators say Rostas would rifle by means of their valuables and make a hasty exodus with their money.
In March, Father Peter Raydar, of the appropriately named American Martyrs Roman Catholic Church in Queens, N.Y., obtained burned for $900.
“He’s a vulture, he’s a vulture,” Raydar instructed a neighborhood TV station. “It’s very unhappy that somebody goes to come back to any home of worship and simply violate everyone.”
However, Raydar confessed, the alleged faux priest had finished his homework. He’d discovered the names of individuals on the church, used ecclesiastical vocabulary and knew the place to seek out the loot, he mentioned.
Rostas is accused of pulling an identical caper at a church in Houston, making off with $500. And authorities suspect he’s answerable for the theft of greater than $1,700 from a church in Oregon.
There’s nothing new about diabolical scammers posing as males of the fabric, in fact.
In October, the Diocese of Stockton issued a warning about two males who had assumed the identities of actual clergymen in Toluca, Mexico, and have been charging largely immigrant parishioners exorbitant charges to carry out impromptu rituals: baptisms, confirmations, first Communions.
The “wolves in sheep’s clothes,” as a diocese spokeswoman described the lads to the Nationwide Catholic Register, additionally began demanding copies of the parishioners’ delivery certificates, elevating fears of identification theft and potential human trafficking.
In Miami, church officers not too long ago warned the trustworthy about faux clergymen performing bogus rituals in change for iTunes present playing cards loaded with money. One parishioner was duped for $1,500.
It obtained so dangerous, the native archbishop needed to go on TV and remind his flock that, though it’s common for clergymen to move across the assortment plate asking for cash throughout Mass, “no Catholic clergyman will ask a parishioner for a present card.”
However maybe essentially the most impressed current priest rip-off occurred in Sacramento, when the house owners of a small chain of taquerias that was underneath federal investigation for labor regulation violations employed a faux father to listen to staff’ confessions.
“I discovered the dialog to be unusual and in contrast to regular confessions,” one of many servers later instructed investigators.
As an alternative of giving her area to look her soul and replicate on her sins, the faux priest saved steering the dialog to her job efficiency: asking if she ever confirmed up late, stole from the restaurant or did something to hurt her employer.
For “Father Martin,” the reckoning arrived Thursday morning in Moreno Valley within the type of Riverside County sheriff’s deputies who mentioned they observed his automobile matched the outline of a car utilized in a string of burglaries.
Behind the wheel they discovered Rostas, 45, of New York. After working a routine examine for arrest warrants, they rapidly realized they have been head to head with what so many had been looking for — the alleged pilfering padre.
Rostas was booked on the Robert Presley Detention Heart in Riverside on an impressive felony warrant from Pennsylvania. Extra costs are anticipated to be filed quickly, in keeping with the Sheriff’s Division.
