Pastor Denies Committing Christmas Eve Burglary

Dallas preacher Sandy McGriff says she wasn’t breaking into a congregant’s house on Christmas Eve to rob her—she did it to protect the woman from other burglars. McGriff, who was arrested when police caught her loading $10,000 worth of valuables into her car, says she stopped by to check on Serita Agnew's house when she saw two men exit it. She says she climbed through a window they’d already broken, and grabbed Agnew’s fur coats, designer purses, and a laptop to protect them in case the thieves returned.

“I thought I was helping,” she tells the Dallas Morning News. That, needless to say, is not how police tell the story. A neighbor called police when he spotted a woman break Agnew’s window and climb into the house. When police arrived, they say McGriff told them that Agnew had asked her to pick up the coats, making no mention of the two men. The police report also says she was not sober, and lists her name as “Kathy Robinson,” an alias she has a criminal record under. She was released on $26,000 bail in time for Christmas services. (More Sandy McGriff stories.)