Homeless man jailed after Church insists on pressing charges over stolen cookies worth $2.25

[DeSwiss]

13. FBCRPB responds:

FBCRPB • 4 hours ago

A young man entered the closed church building several weeks
ago while the custodial company was cleaning. He went into the kitchen and took
some cookies. The building was empty with the exception of a contracted
cleaning lady. He startled her and she dialed 911. The PBSO (Palm Beach County Sherriff Office) officer contacted one of our non-pastoral staff who lives near the campus. The officer was familiar with the situation and explained to her
that the young man was just put out of his home by his family because of his
disruptive and destructive lifestyle. The young man appeared to be under the
influence. Since he was wandering around the neighborhood, the officer
suggested the best course may be to press charges for the incident which would
enter the young man into the system where he could find help. The church staff
member agreed. Although our church partners with PBSO to provide hundreds of meals for needy families, this time we agreed with the officer’s suggestion that the young man needed more help than just a free meal.

We have contacts with rehabilitation programs. We do
refer individuals to such programs and in retrospect we might have done so with
this individual. Following the lead of the officer in this case seemed
reasonable at the moment for our representative who was called to the church
facility with the responsibility to secure the building.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to share another facet
of the story.

- Patheos broke the story first apparently, and when FBCRPB got wind of it they put out this ''explanation''(?) on the blog where it first appeared.

I'm almost inclined to believe them because only the sincerely deluded could ever believe that one can get ''help'' by going to jail.

K&R