JANITOR BUSTED FOR STEALING OVER $50K FROM CHURCH BUT CAUGHT BY ACCIDENT

A janitor is accused of taking tens of thousands of dollars from a York County church, according to police.


Investigators said Joseph Leggett Jr., of Shrewsbury, is accused of taking more than $50,000 from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in New Freedom. “We ended last year in deficit. And that would have made a big difference.

With that deficit, 50,000 is a substantial amount of money for a large parish, especially for a large parish that has so many ministry activities and salaries to take care of,” said Fr. Joshua Brommer, St. John the Baptist Church. 

In November, an officer was called to his apartment on Bartill Drive in Shrewsbury for an unrelated incident. The officer saw a wooden basket filled with cash and saw piles of cash throughout the apartment, police said.

A search of the apartment found cash in shoe boxes, grocery bags and other wooden baskets, they said. Father Brommer says the church now has new policies to better protect the offerings.

Police want to get the money back to the church as soon as possible. “It’s unfortunate that it happened this time of year because we have 50,000 that we have to retain until there’s a court disposition,” said Sgt. Darryl Smuck, II with Southern York County Regional Police.