Thief sleeps in church after busy weekend

It was a wild night in November in the southern Swedish town of Eksjö. A drunk 40-year-old man behaved threateningly in a shop in Mariannelund, robbed another shop in Ingatorp, and demanded that another customer pays for his goods in a third shop in Eksjö.

In between, he managed to behave menacingly on the streets of the three towns, the Christian daily Dagen reports. Among other things, he also allegedly stopped a car on the street in Ingatorp, forced his way into the car and then took three bottles of cider with him before the driver finally managed to get him out of the car. However, the police were unable to find him.

Altar

The next day, however, the churchwarden of Eksjö church heard someone snoring in the church. He discovered a sleeping man at the altar, Kjell Havskog, cemetery director in Södra Vedbo Pastorate, says to Dagen.

The churchwarden called Havskog for reinforcements, and when he arrived at the scene, they entered the church and tried to wake the man. They stood some distance away from the man and tried to wake him up by calling him but got no reaction, and then they called the police, who were there in ten minutes.

Once there, the police could barely wake him up either, but in the end, the man woke up and obediently followed the police to the waiting police car. Only then did he start to resist, but to no avail.

It is rare for something like this to happen, Kjell Havskog says, but the congregation has well-developed routines for such situations. “If you come across a person who you suspect is under the influence of drugs, you should think about your safety first and then call a colleague so that you are not alone, or call the police, depending on how serious the situation is.”