A Dallas pastor who admitted that she entered a parishioner's home and removed belongings without permission is now saying that she was only trying to help.
The Dallas Morning News reported:
Sandy McGriff, 52, said she was trying to protect valuables at the home of her longtime friend Serita Agnew and made a horrible mistake.
Police accuse McGriff of stealing more than $10,000 worth of fur coats, designer purses and electronics from a home in the 2200 block of Village Way near Kiest Boulevard and Lancaster Road. She was also charged with resisting arrest.
McGriff spent most of Christmas Day in jail and was released on $26,000 bail in time for Sunday morning services at The Church of the Living God. The sanctuary is in the back of her husband's furniture store on Lancaster Road in east Oak Cliff.
McGriff invited reporters to her Grand Prairie home Monday to tell her side of the story.
She said she had been in Agnew's east Oak Cliff neighborhood on Friday evening to pick up a peach cobbler from a friend. "Something just told me to go past her house," McGriff said.
McGriff said that when she did, she saw two men coming out from the side of Agnew's house. She said she pulled her black Jaguar into the driveway and walked around the home. That's when she saw the broken kitchen window.
"My mistake was I did not call 911," McGriff said. "I just used poor judgment."
She said she cleared away shards of glass, stood on a barrel and climbed in through the window. She said she was trying to protect Agnew's valuables in case the men came back.
"I thought I was helping," McGriff said.
