LAKELAND, Fla. — Two men were arrested after they broke into a church early Friday morning in Lakeland and stole food from inside, deputies say.
Ronald McCain, 27, and Nelson Newman, 59, were charged with burglary, theft and tampering with evidence.
The men broke into an outbuilding at Christ Memorial Baptist Church and stole frozen meat, Gatorade and ice cream, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. McCain and Newman then loaded the food onto a bike with a trailer attached to it.
The sheriff's office says the food they stole was worth about $300.
After showing nearby residents a picture of the bike and trailer the men used during the burglary, deputies reportedly found McCain and Newman at a home on Meridian Avenue. They also located the bike, trailer, several containers of ice cream inside and outside the home – some of which was eaten – and a case of Gatorade.
“These two Grinches got caught stealing $300 worth of frozen food and Gatorade from a church," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. "Both are not strangers to the county jail—Newman has 26 previous arrests and this is McCain’s 10th arrest. My guess is that if they showed up at the church and asked for help, they would have received it.
"Instead, they stole from the church and we took them to jail.”
One of the men inside the home told authorities Newman had left early in the morning and came back with several items of food, law enforcement says.
McCain and Newman declined to tell deputies where they stole the food, and Newman even said he was lactose intolerant.
