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Posted on 03/18/2015 12:26:20 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An elderly woman was arrested in Palo Alto early Sunday morning after surveillance video captured her allegedly breaking into a church.
Palo Alto police took into custody 70-year-old Ethel Jean Hays an hour after officers say she burglarized Trinity Lutheran Church on Middlefield Road, which officers later discovered Hays had broken into once before on Feb. 9. She was booked on two counts of burglary.
That's when, police say, she allegedly stole cash donated by parishioners, which was being stored in the church office. Police found Hays walking on Lytton Avenue and saw that she matched a description of the surveillance footage in the church. They said she admitted to being inside the building. And when they searched her, police said they discovered she was carrying not only a key to the church, but several other keys to several local businesses, as well as documents from a Los Altos preschool.
It’s still unclear how Hays got her hands on of all those keys. But police are looking into whether any of the corresponding businesses were recently burglarized.
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Bush’s fault.
Veteran usher here: We never left the offering at the church.
It’s very likely that if this lady had gone to a pastor of that parish and asked for help, she would have been helped or at least directed to the right social service facility.
For her to be in this deep at the age of 70+ tells me stealing, robbing or ‘lifting’ as some call it has been her lifestyle for a long time. Now everyone knows who and what she is; a thief and a charity robber.
I guess the Social security Ponzi scheme ain’t paying that much.
Prayers for the old woman.
“Trinity Lutheran”
Hmmmm....
So far as I know every church has it’s “Deacon’s fund” or something similar specifically to aid those in the congregation or the neighborhood with urgent financial needs. You are correct, had she asked for help she would have received it.
The fact that she stole the money tells me she wanted no accountability for the way she chose to spend it once she had it.
So far as I know every church has it’s “Deacon’s fund” or something similar specifically to aid those in the congregation or the neighborhood with urgent financial needs. You are correct, had she asked for help she would have received it.
The fact that she stole the money tells me she wanted no accountability for the way she chose to spend it once she had it.
70 is elderly? When I was 30 it was, but now...
We have never had a theft from our collection plate that I know of, but I know of several times when my church has helped those in sudden need with cash instead of just food or our summer home improvement projects. I wonder whether this theft was need or just greed.
re: “The fact that she stole the money tells me she wanted no accountability for the way she chose to spend it once she had it.”
You are likely correct. When I was full time on staff at a church several years ago, we had a food pantry that was stocked to provide emergency food for families going through hard times.
Nearly every day we had people stopping in asking for financial help. We had to adopt a policy of never giving out cash, but helping with whatever the need was. If gasoline, we took them to get gas, if rent, we went to their landlord and paid, if groceries, we took them to the market, etc. When people found out we wouldn’t give cash, they usually left not too happy.
The most memorable and head shaking requests I ever got was:
1. “My color tv was broken and would the church buy them a new one?”
2. When dropping off some groceries, the “man of the house” asked me for some extra cash for some “personal items”. When I asked what kind of personal items, - well, “you know, I could use some smokes and a six pack”. At first I thought he was joking, but then he wasn’t. I politely declined.
3. Once had someone call me at the church and demanded that someone in our church store his Mercedes for him for several months (free of course). And, it had to be in an acceptable location and secure facility. He hung up on me when I kept asking him if he was serious.
I;m been in some of the more TRENDY and modern churches and they say if you have a need, take some money out...and if you want to give...leave it in the plate. They said this 4 Sundays in a row. I thought they were joking. I;ve helped myself.. to $1.00 just to see if someone would stop me.
Wow, that's a good one. We need to start a charity for needy yuppies.
We don’t keep the offering at our church, either. Goes straight to the bank the day it’s collected. Pastor gives people cash, but since the amount he can give without consulting the council is pretty low, he just carries it on his person I think. We have a food bank and other resources, but they aren’t the sort of things someone would steal.
However, our Communion ware was stolen from the church this past January. Maybe we need to invest in some video security cameras. *sigh*
Did you expect a Lutheran church to be named after Mary or such?
Every pastor has stories to tell. Our church once had a member who relied on the Deacon’s fund solely for her income, claiming she was disabled but unable to get a disability payout from her former employer. When the pastor insisted the church contact an attorney to get her the disability, she suddenly decided she had been “healed” and left the church. We later confirmed that she was pulling the scam on three other churches in town, visiting them each one Sunday a month.
I guess that’s its own kind of disability.
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