BUTLER TWP — A suspected thief will have to face the music for allegedly stealing two guitars and an amplifier from a township church where he occasionally worked.

The suspect, Steven D. Saeler, 36, of Oakland Township, is accused of selling the items, stolen last month from the North Main Street Church of God on Route 8, for a tiny fraction of their value.

Saeler, who has a long criminal record, admitted to the crime and acknowledged he is a heroin user, township police said.

District Judge Kevin O’Donnell on Wednesday arraigned him on a first-degree misdemeanor charge of theft. He is in the Butler County Prison on $10,000 bail.

The Rev. David Wilson, pastor of the North Main Street Church of God, reported the theft March 3. Missing was an Epiphone guitar and a Fender bass guitar and amplifier, worth a combined $1,460.

The instruments and equipment were last used during the Feb. 23 service, he said, and they had been left on the stage.

Police suspect the crime was a kind of “inside job.” Saeler at times worked at the church.

“He worked on a per diem basis,” said police Detective Sgt. Nathan Teslik.

Investigators learned Saeler worked at the church the entire last week of February, when the property was taken.

Teslik said he suspects Saeler sold the three items to Wally Yaracs Auction in Summit Township on separate days, Feb. 24, 25 and 26. He got $195 for the guitars and amp.

Yaracs provided police with a copy of the business receipts that showed Saeler as the seller, and listed his identification information, documents said.

A Fenelton woman on March 1 bought the bass guitar and amp at the auction, police said. She had no idea they were stolen.

The woman, in turn, listed the items for sale on Craigslist and eBay.

Wilson’s son happened to check both online auction sites March 10 and spotted the church’s bass guitar for sale on eBay.

Teslik said he tracked down the woman, who still had the guitar. However, the amp had been sold, and she had just shipped it to Connecticut.

“We were able to have that (amplifier) returned,” he said, “before it reached its destination.”

Police recovered both items and the Epiphone guitar, which Yaracs had sold to a Cranberry Township woman.

By the time Teslik interviewed Saeler, he was already in prison, having turned himself in Feb. 28 on a bench warrant for failing to appear at a hearing in an unrelated case.

“He admitted to the (church) theft,” a police affidavit said, “stating that he had been drug free for several months but had started back on heroin.”

County court records showed Saeler’s record dates back to 1997 and includes six felony convictions, mainly for forgery and theft-related crimes.