Unholy night: 'Whacked out' couple crashes midnight Mass
A couple of unholy, intoxicated church goers - high on booze and drugs - crashed a midnight Mass in Drexel Hill on Christmas when they stumbled down the aisle, fondled each other in a pew and flushed drugs down the church toilet, police said.
Unholy night: 'Whacked out' couple crashes midnight Mass
Stephanie Farr
A couple of unholy, intoxicated church goers - high on booze and drugs - crashed a midnight Mass in Drexel Hill on Christmas when they stumbled down the aisle, fondled each other in a pew and flushed drugs down the church toilet, police said.
Authorities believe Alexander Pirone, 21, and Catherine McGrath, 24, planned to hide out in the restroom until after the building was locked up for the night so they could burglarize the church, but a cop and an EMT who were also at the Mass thwarted their plan, said police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.
Pirone and McGrath burst into St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church on Burmont Road and stumbled down the aisle shortly after midnight Mass began on Dec. 25, police said. Officer Samuel Sproull, who was on duty at the time and attending the Mass, saw them come in and saw that they were "whacked out," Chitwood said.
"At one point in time, they were fondling one another in the pew to the point where a couple of the church goers had to tell them to stop acting like morons," Chitwood said. "They had to tell them that they were there to worship and pray and stop making a spectacle of themselves."
When the Mass was over, Sproull decided to wait for the couple outside of the church, but they never came out, Chitwood said. As the priest was about to lock up the church for the night, an EMT worker who also attended the Mass told Sproull that he'd seen the couple go downstairs and never come up, police said.
Sproull went downstairs and found Pirone sitting on the steps and McGrath locked in the bathroom, flushing the toilet, Chitwood said. When he was able to get the restroom door open, Sproull found four glassine bags in the toilet that are typically used to hold heroin, Chitwood said. A search of McGrath turned up a plastic vial with several bags of heroin in it as well as 43 pills, he said. Sproull also found numerous dangerous pills and narcotics on Pirone, Chitwood said. Both Pirone, of Clifton Heights, and McGrath, of Springfield, smelled of alcohol at the time too, according to police.
McGrath and Pirone, both of whom have a history of drug offenses, were arrested and charged with narcotics violations and public drunkenness, police said. They remain in prison in lieu of $30,000 and $20,000 bail, respectively, police said.
"They were looking for a problem," Chitwood said. "Well, both are still in jail so Merry Christmas to them."
nice little nugget that the cop was on duty and attending mass at the same time - your tax dollars at work- Police are allowed to take breaks just like people of every other occupation. If the story was about a police officer at a diner eating or a convenience store buying a snapple while on duty you would not find that odd. If a man chooses to spend his break at church instead of a donut shop then let it be. Obviously God had a plan. — SPhilly07
- My guess is it was a typo and the officer was probably off duty, or on break. Besides, cops are on duty 24-7. They never stop. They are not supposed to. By the way, I find your name compelling. If you are what your screen-name implies and you would choose to use that to announce to the world what is important to you then I'd say your opinion doesnt count for much. You should spend a few cozy nights with Catherine and Alexander. You are peas in a pod. — OldSouthPhilly
- If a police officer wants to use his dinner break to attend a religous service, and has informed his supervisor and received permission to do so, and remains in the geographic region of his department, I don't see why you (DFA) object. In this case, the officer's presence resulted in two alleged felons being taken off of the streets thereby protecting and serving the public good. Some people need to grow up and (DFA) is one of them. — MrGBojangles
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- yeah, I've noticed in more than a few articles, there are one or more mis-spelled words. No wonder papers are closed all over the country if this is typical.
- DogfightingAficionado, amazing that your take from this story is that
a cop "wasted" an hour of taxpayers money attending Mass. Oh, by the way, he prevented a crime. I suspect, though, that robbing a church doesn't rank very high on your standards. Based on your name, I shouldn't have bothered responding.— Mandela - But you just couldn't help yourself....typical — sphillybrian
- God bless our men & women in blue...especially those with a religious bent...— TomTheCork
- guess what, cops have lives. No cop sits in his/her squad car all shift long if there are no crimes being committed..— palmyra21
- Given that the story is several days old, I suspect the author should have had time to do a little proofreading to catch, in addition to "vile," the following:
"When the mass over" - 5th graph
"several bags of heroine" - 6th graph— Pa Reader - The section reading "plastic vile with several bags of heroine" is either awful editing or interesting poetry. Also, Tom, non-religious cops are somehow less deserving of praise? Wow.— Cromulents
I have no problem with an on duty officer attending mass in Drexel Hill, its not like the city where crime is out of control, the city will have more crime in 2 days than Drexel Hill will have all year. These 2 junkies should stay in prison for a while to sober up and get a real life.- the guy looks like a mix of Screech & Shaggy....the home boys will like him in prison. The girl is just a strung-out junkie...I'm sure she was good looking before the drugs got hold of her. Really glad these two are off the streets.— jerseyjohn
Off the streets? Yeah for a day or two.— The Monk
