Jerusalem police on Wednesday evening arrested a 14-year-old boy suspected of breaking into a synagogue multiple times and stealing thousands of shekels of money from the charity box.

The investigation began after the sexton of a synagogue in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood filed a complaint with the police alleging that someone broke into the synagogue's charity box safe and stole thousands of shekels donated by worshipers.

The sexton said that one week after the first break-in, he identified the same suspect attempting to break open the charity box a second time, causing it damage.

Police investigators began working to locate the suspect, and found it to be a teenage boy who the court had ordered placed in a closed institution, but who violated the court order and spent time outside the institution.

On Wednesday night, police detectives discovered the suspect, together with a number of other youths, in a storage room in one of the neighborhood's building; all of the youth were smoking what appear to be forbidden substances.

Surprisingly, the teen was wearing tefillin (phylacteries) at the time of his arrest. The police officers allowed him to finish his prayers prior to being arrested, but when the teen lit a cigarette while wearing tefillin, the officers told him to stop smoking and arrested him on the spot.

The suspect was taken for questioning on suspicion of breaking and entering, and violating a legal order; he was jailed following the questioning. He will be brought to court Thursday for an extension of his arrest.

The police are continuing the investigation and examining whether the teen was involved in additional synagogue break-ins in the area.