A thief posed as a visiting priest to rob a Queens church — and he’s been linked to heists at houses of worship across the country that netted tens of thousands of dollars, cops and law-enforcement sources said Friday.
Prolific fake priest Malin Rostas’ nationwide scam was uncovered a few months ago when he was busted in California for trying to steal from a church in Moreno Valley, about 60 miles from Los Angeles, while posing as “Father Martin,” authorities said.
Now, the accused conman, of Queens, is back in New York City, having been extradited from the Golden State on Thursday to face charges for stealing from a Bayside parish in March.
Rostas, 45, put on an innocent face when he entered American Martyrs RC Church on March 3 around 12:20 p.m., claiming he was a visiting priest hoping to officiate a Mass alongside the in-house clergy, Father Peter Rayder, 63, told WNBC.
The fraudster claimed to the 85-year-old senior priest that he’d left something behind in the rectory — but instead snuck into Rayder’s bedroom and swooped up $900, he said.
“I saw him. I spoke to him. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘I’m here to concelebrate,’” Rayder told the network.
When Rayder asked the phony priest if he had a letter from the bishop, he fibbed, “Oh, it’s in my car. I’ll go get it,” he said.
That’s when Rostas made his getaway in a dark-colored sedan, heading south on Bell Boulevard, cops said.
Rayder told WABC in March that the burglar appeared well-researched, knew the names of the clergy and used the same vocabulary as real priests.
“He’s a vulture, he’s a vulture, gypsy, he knows what he’s doing,” Rayder said.
He has stolen tens of thousands of dollars from churches in New York alone, according to sources.
Using the same fake priest act, he’s also attempted to burglarize St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Brooklyn, and the Sisters of Saint Dominic in Amityville, Suffolk County — but left empty-handed, according to the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.
Rayder was busted in Southern California for the attempted church burglary on April 10, about a month after the Bayside heist.
At the time, he was also booked on an outstanding warrant for a 2022 burglary from a Pennsylvania home, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said.
In October, the priest poser claiming to be “Father Martin” allegedly stole $500 from the rectory of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Houston, Texas, and tried but failed to do the same at Dallas parishes, the Catholic News Agency reported.
He’s also believed to have stolen $1,770 from a parish in Oregon, and could be responsible for similar thefts in Ontario, Canada, according to The New York Times.
Rostas was awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court Friday on charges of second-degree burglary and petit larceny, and prosecutors said he may not appear before a judge until sometime over the weekend due to delays caused by the worldwide Microsoft outage.
Diocese of Brooklyn spokesman John Quaglione said in a statement that he hopes the arrest ends Rostas’ alleged string of crimes against churches.
“The Diocese of Brooklyn commends the New York City Police Department for their diligence in this case,” Quaglione said. “It was the NYPD that issued a national alert on this suspect after his robbery at American Martyrs, which led to his initial arrest in California. This impostor priest will now face burglary charges in New York, and we hope this is the end of his preying on churches.”
— Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer and Khristina Narizhnaya
