A Roman Catholic priest is accused of shoplifting butter and a sofa cover at a Wal-Mart in southern Illinois.
Police in the village of West City arrested 41-year-old the Rev. Steven Poole on Friday. He’s charged with two felony theft counts.
Investigators say Poole failed to scan a $3.22 container of butter and a $60 sofa cover at a self-checkout. Poole then allegedly went to the store’s bedding section, picked up a memory foam mattress and switched the pricing bar code. That caused the $145 item to be scanned for $31. Allegedly, Poole also possessed a stolen laptop computer power pack.
He’s the priest for St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Christopher and St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Sesser. Poole does not have a listed home telephone number, and messages left for him at the churches were not returned.
West City, Ill. —
