According to police search warrants carried out by the police link the cases, and one suspect has been arrested so far. On March 12, Christopher Pavelek, 20, was taken into custody at his home in the 2000 block of Fairglen Avenue in Willow Glen, said San Jose police spokeswoman Catherine Unger.

Holy Spirit Parish Associate Rosalie Marty said the parish's Almaden Valley church was burglarized sometime after 10 p.m. on March 3. "They broke into the back entrance of the parish office and stole computer equipment. Everything from our front office was gone."

Police have recovered several items; they recovered the Rev. Brendan McGuire's Apple computer system eight days after the break-in. "Hopefully, he will put it together ... and it'll still work," Marty said.

She said she was surprised to hear about the burglaries at other churches across the city. "Why are they hitting us? If you were really going to rob somebody, would you go to a church?" she asked. "When you went to heaven, wouldn't you be a little nervous? If they're robbing a church, that would be an 'a ha!' when they got there."

Thieves also broke into Willow Glen's St. Christopher's School at the intersection of Booksin and Curtner avenues a few weeks ago, said administrator Chuck Blalock. "The church was locked up—they came in through the roof. They took microphones and audio equipment from the church," he said.

It appears that the thieves might have begun their burglary spree on New Year's Eve, when they hit Willow Glen's Presentation High School. The thieves clambered through the roof of the school's new theater and then walked out the front door with $50,000 worth of microphones, computers, soundboards and projectors.

The school's building manager went to Holy Spirit to see if any of the recovered items belonged to the school. "The police found a touch-screen light controller, but it's broken," said Mary Miller, dean of the all-girls Catholic high school.

"Evidently, one of the suspects is from this neighborhood; they found prints and matched one of them," Miller said. "Looks like their greed got to them."

Miller said the faculty suspected that one of the thieves was a local resident, since the burglary took place when the campus was deserted. Presentation High's insurance paid to replace the lost equipment.

And it's as if the thieves were working a straight line down Curtner Avenue when they also took advantage of the deserted campus of Ida Price Middle School, in San Jose just beyond the Campbell border, on Feb. 17. The thieves hit the school, which is part of the Cambrian School District, while the campus was closed for vacation. The vice principal's secretary, Ann Berry, said the school lost about $9,220 worth of sound equipment and drums.

"So far the only thing we've gotten back that's usable is a pair of drumsticks," Berry said.

None of the four targets was aware of the other burglaries. "We need to be wise that these things happen in our neighborhoods," said Rosalie Marty.

San Jose police officers working the case weren't available for comment by press time. Several related search warrants were carried out on March 11 and 12.