Church-offering thief in Florida helps nab himself with visitor card

In the annals of petty crime, it may not be the stupidest theft ever. But it’s probably close.

Sheriff’s deputies in Lakeland, Fla., tracked down a man charged with stealing the Nov. 16 offering from Crystal Lake Baptist Church with help from a visitor card he had filled out the previous Sunday. He had given the church his first name and his mother’s address.

And the church treasurer from whom he allegedly grabbed the money just happens to be the county sheriff’s stepmother.

Harold Williams, 28, was arrested Nov. 17 on charges of robbery by snatching, a felony punishable by up to three years in prison, and disrupting a religious assembly, a misdemeanor.

Williams is accused of grabbing a portion of the offerings collected from about 70 worshippers at the church from the treasurer, then running away.

Ushers who had just collected the offering told a local television station they recognized the young man who followed them out of the sanctuary and grabbed the money. They recalled he had been a visitor the previous Sunday. Police went to the address on the card, and the woman who lived there told them she had a son named Harold. Deputies arrested Williams after spotting him walking on a street near the church.

Detectives reportedly found two checks — for $120 and $40 — made out to the church and discarded offering envelopes in bushes at a nearby elementary school. It was initially estimated that the thief took about $100. Williams reportedly told deputies he took $22 and threw everything else that was with the money on the ground. (ABP)