By Carolyn Cole/Staff Writer A Christmas Eve grinch stole more than 92-year-old Minnie Barry’s money — he took her trust in other people. And she said she wants to warn others, including her neighbors at Southern Manor senior apartments, to be wary. “He didn’t look like a crook,” she said. “I guess I don’t know what a crook looks like, and when he said he was from the church, that got me right there.” Barry said she took her purse to her bedroom before she answered the knock on her apartment door Christmas Eve. She said at first she thought the man, in his mid-40s, looked familiar. “He said to me, ‘I’m from the church,’” she said. “Dumbbell me, I should have asked, ‘What church are you from.’ Instead I asked him, ‘Are you from the Nazarene church,’ where I go.” Barry said the man answered “yes,” so she let him into her apartment. He sat in her chair, she said, and the two talked for a half hour about Christmas and his friend who he said was moving to El Reno and looking for an apartment. He started looking around her place. “He stood right in that (bedroom) doorway, and I never saw him move,” she said. “But he had to move to get to my purse.” As he left, Barry said he asked her if he could leave through a fire escape in the apartment hallway. She said she directed him down the hall toward the elevator. “He was clean and well-kept,” she said. A while later, she discovered $200 she had scrimped and saved in her coin purse for emergencies was missing. Barry said as a senior citizen relying on a small pension to pay health insurance, rent, utilities and groceries, it took her a while to save her rainy day money. “I’m going to spend every penny I get,” she said. “At least I’ll have the pleasure of spending it myself rather than saving it up for somebody else to steal.” Tom Chronister, who owns the Southern Manor, said this is the first time one of his residents was targeted, and he’s talked with seniors both in his building and the neighboring senior center about the theft. “Everybody down here really watches out after each other,” he said. “And it is so unusual for something like this to happen.” No other related incidents were reported to police, Chief Fred Savage said, adding the department has no suspects in the case. “People need to make sure they know who they are letting into their residences — that they know who is stepping in,” Savage said. Other similar tools thieves use to get in homes include claiming to represent a utility company or needing help, Savage said, adding residents should ask for identification from any company representatives. “You will see this type of crime, people taking advantage of elderly people.” Chronister said his residents have learned a lesson. “Everybody just needs to be on their toes,” he said.