10.27.22 – WKFR
An Ohio clown could be facing serious charges after stealing candy and damaging a church’s security system.
Last Tuesday afternoon around 5:30 PM some guy was clowning around in a church and set off its security alarm. When deputies from the Licking County Sheriff’s department arrived at the scene of the crime, Marne United Methodist Church in Newark, Ohio, they immediately found what the clown pulled down according to NBC4i,
The arriving officer and the owner of the church discovered that the alarm control panel had been removed and was on the floor just inside the front door.
The church’s security camera filmed the suspect wearing a dark hoodie and a clown mask taking a bowl of candy from a scarecrow and dumping it into his bag. As the suspect was leaving the church he then attempted to destroy the alarm system by pulling it off the wall.
The estimated total cost of what the suspect stole and damaged is only $30. However, aside from the minor theft, the suspect could be charged with breaking and entering which is a 5th-degree felony in Ohio with a prison term of 6 to 12 months as well as up to $2,500 in fines according to Attorney Adam Burke. The suspect could also face charges for tampering with an alarm system which is a third-degree misdemeanor and shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) or imprisoned not more than sixty days, or both, for each offense according to American Legal Publishing.
That’s a lot of hard time for a bag of hard candy.