A Roman Catholic priest was accused of shoplifting butter and a sofa cover at a Wal-Mart in southern Illinois.
Police arrested 41-year-old Rev Steven Poole on Friday. He's charged with two felony theft counts. Investigators said Poole failed to scan a US$3.22 container of butter and a US$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 US$145 item to be scanned for US$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.
AP