No Good Deed . . .

Monday evening just before 5 (why do these things always happen just before 5??) a guy walked into the church looking for an AA meeting.

"There's one at 7," I said.

"Can I stay here until then?"

After a discussion, I decided to let him stay in the building with the understanding that he was to behave himself and that NOTHING would go wrong.

We seemed clear on that point.

I got a call just after 7 from my Senior Warden, who had received a call from a parishioner, who had received a call from someone connected with the AA meeting about the gentleman.  The two of us headed down to the church to be met by members of the AA group, the police, and the guy.

Turns out that while he was waiting for the meeting to start, he decided to start cooking -- Raisin Bran and chocolate sauce being the meal of choice; as well as deciding to . . . redecorate.  He had pulled pictures down, pulled things out of the library, and looked for a variety of things to gather together that might fit into his backpack.

He was sitting on the steps to the office while members of the group kept an eye on him.  They filled me in on what was going on and how they tried to handle it as best they could.  I had another chat with him where it became apparent that he had no idea what he was doing.  And the police informed me that they have a long history with him.

"Do you want to charge him with trespassing?" one officer asked me.

"Well, since I invited him to stay, I can't exactly do that."

The police escorted him away, I thanked the AA group for getting in touch with us, my Senior Warden and I cleaned up a bit, and we went home for the night.

As those old PSA's used to say, "The more you know . . ."
I know more today than I did yesterday.  I guess that's a good thing.