What do a lot of people do on Sunday mornings around the city? While growing up my brothers and sisters started going to this church on the corner of 9th and Highland Avenue. It was called Trinity Lutheran Evangelical Church and we started by going to what they called vacation bible school. Eventually my parents came and on a typical day we would all go to Sunday school then church almost every Sunday. This pretty much became routine, and this was always part of growing up. Later when I met my wife, Paula, she had been raised as a Catholic growing up. After marriage we decided to go to church on any given Sunday. We would go back and forth between the churches during the month. Normally after church we would go out to eat breakfast before going home. This was a nice quiet day that we kind of always looked forward to.
This past Sunday we decided to go to church, and it was my turn to go to Trinity on this day. Church starts at 10am and Paula and I were there about 15 minutes before the service started. We greeted everyone as usual and took our seats for the service. Normally I like for us to sit a few rows from the back of the church. The service currently is held in the basement since we had a very bad fire a few years ago and the church almost burned down. It was all over the news historic Trinty burns in downtown Milwaukee. The church is being repaired and still has a long way to go before it is complete. As the service was going on a man with a hood over most of his head sit right behind us. My wife pulled her purse closer and said I don’t feel comfortable with that man sitting behind us. I told her don’t worry everything should be okay.
After the sermon we passed the plate and people were putting church envelopes with money and checks inside. After I put my envelope in the basket, I heard someone holler from the rear and observed the man reach inside the basket grabbing a hand full of envelopes before running out of the church. He almost knocked down a man after the theft and running. I grabbed my phone and got off after him, calling 911 as I kept him in sight. I gave the operator a description and advised I was following the suspect and needed police service. As the man walked, he was talking to himself plus opening the envelope up. He ripped them open and threw them on the ground as he walked. Of course, he was looking for money as the checks were all over the ground. A fellow church member came with his car, and we followed waiting for the police to arrive.
The police did arrive, and the suspect was arrested for strongarm robbery. It was kind of ironic but right where he was arrested, I looked at the ground and there were the two checks I put in church today. The police took pictures and back tracked the route to try and find the other envelopes he tore open and threw on the ground. It turned out to be a crazy Sunday, but no one was hurt and that was the main thing for me. You can always get more money but not another life. Another moral I guess is always listen to your wife. Later that afternoon we went out to the State Fair for the last day. You can never tell what’s going to happen on any given Sunday.
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