Holy Heist: Priest Accused of Shoplifting
Man of God may have Good Book thrown at him
A shoplifting priest in southern Illinois needs to read his rulebook again.
A Roman Catholic priest in West City of southern Illinois needs to read his commandments again.
Rev. Steven Poole was arrested on charges of theft Friday.
We're not Biblical scholars, but we're pretty sure there's a clear policy about stealing in his line of work.
Police arrested the 41-year-old priest at a Walmart, saying he had shoplifted butter and a sofa cover.
Poole had brought his items to a self-checkout aisle but did not scan a $3.22 container of butter nor a $60 sofa cover, according to investigators. While this might be chalked up to forgetfulness, his next act seemed quite deliberate.
The priest then allegedly walked to the store's bedding aisles, chose a memory foam mattress, and switched its pricing barcode with the barcode of a significantly-lower-priced item. The $145 mattress now rang up for $31.
Poole is also accused of having a stolen laptop computer power pack in his possession.
Village police arrested Poole and charged him with two felony counts of theft.
Matt Bartosik is a Chicago native and a social media sovereign.
Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations / NBC Chicago
Posted Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010 - 5:57 AM CST
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