China Graham might not have gotten the full message when she went to church on Sunday.

Police said the Ellwood City woman gave offerings while she was at First Presbyterian Church in New Brighton. But she used a stolen check. And at the same service, she stole a wallet from a woman who had left her purse on the pew while she took communion.

Now police in New Brighton and Ellwood City are looking to arrest her. New Brighton police Chief Charles Vanfossan said yesterday she recently slipped through their fingers.

Officers who went to her Ellwood City residence saw her fleeing the home after she jumped from a second-floor window, the chief said.

District Judge Dale F. Nicholson signed an arrest warrant Monday for Ms. Graham, 20, who also uses the name Mya Love. She faces charges of access device fraud, theft and two counts of receiving stolen property.

The charges stem from events at a church service Sunday. Police said Ms. Graham had attended church with her mother that day, but her mother is not a suspect.

According to a police affidavit, the suspect took a wallet from the purse of a woman who left her seat to take communion. The wallet contained $37, a Discover card and a check book.

Ms. Graham used a check from another stolen book to make a $50 offering to the church. The gift envelope was signed, "Mya Love," the affidavit said.

From church, the suspect went to a Family Dollar store on Fifth Avenue in New Brighton, where she used the stolen Discover card to buy $87 in merchandise. Then she went to the BP Supermart Plus two doors down, where she charged about $120 worth of goods.

First Presbyterian is the second church the suspect used as a crime scene, police said. In August police believe she stole two wallets from purses at the Christian Assembly in New Brighton and last month she is suspected of lifting a wallet from a purse in a shopping cart at a New Brighton grocery store.

Ms. Graham tried to use a credit card from the Christian Assembly theft to get a $16,000 cash advance, but the bank refused to grant it, police said.

Police said Ms. Graham also victimized visitors at Ellwood City's library in September when she stole a .38-caliber pistol, a cell phone, a digital camera and credit cards from purses. She also stole other items in August and September from cars parked near the Ellwood City post office and in a lot across from the borough building.

These thefts were captured on surveillance cameras mounted at the borough building, police said.

Police served a search warrant on Sept. 11 at Ms. Graham's residence, where they recovered documents and other evidence related to the thefts, Chief Vanfossan said.

Anyone with information on Ms. Graham's whereabouts is asked to call police in New Brighton or Ellwood City.

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