Marietta church says thieves destroyed three AC units, relocates Vacation Bible School

Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta, Oklahoma, said thieves destroyed three of its air-conditioning units and that it is asking for donations to pay for replacements, according to a post the congregation published on its Facebook page Sunday, July 12, 2026. The same post said the church's Vacation Bible School would go ahead that night, moved out of the Family Life Center and into the old Fellowship Hall.

The church described the equipment as wrecked rather than hauled off whole. Addressing the person it held responsible, the post opened with a line written "to whomever destroyed these AC units at our church to get $200 worth of aluminum." The congregation asked members and others to help cover the cost of three new units.

The post did not put a dollar figure on the damage, and the church record reviewed for this report states no replacement or repair total. It did not name a suspect or say whether any material from the units had been sold.

The church's account does not spell out when the theft happened. The Sunday post is the only date fixed in the primary record, and it does not place the damage on a specific earlier day.

For readers in Gainesville and Cooke County, the church sits across the state line in southern Oklahoma. The City of Marietta lists Eastside Baptist Church on the churches page of its official website.

Air-conditioning coils contain copper and aluminum, and both states regulate how salvaged metal of that kind can be sold. Oklahoma's Scrap Metal Dealer Law names condensing and evaporating coils, including copper coil ends, among regulated items. Under that law, a scrap-metal dealer may not buy them without proof that the seller owns the property or is authorized to sell it, a signed ownership declaration, or evidence that the seller is exempt.

Texas handles similar sales through the Department of Public Safety. The agency runs the state's metals program under Chapter 1956 of the Occupations Code, which requires metal recycling businesses to register, keep records of their transactions and allow inspections.

Those statutes set the legal terms for scrap sales on each side of the state line. They do not establish what happened at Eastside Baptist Church, and the record reviewed here describes no arrest or charge.

The church's public post is the only first-party account of the theft and of the decision to keep Vacation Bible School on schedule. Its stated response was to move the children's program and seek donations rather than call off the week's activities.