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When you have the urge to break things, urinate, and smoke cigarettes, where better to do it than a Mormon church, right? Wrong — just ask Minnesota native Jacob Jeffrey Schwartz, who broke into a Mormon church Friday morning to do each of the aforementioned activities.
Scottsdale police say Schwartz, 20, barricaded himself inside a Scottsdale Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 90 minutes about 2 a.m. Friday.
A neighbor called police after she said she saw a man break into the church on the 6800 block of East Gold Dust Avenue, which is directly adjacent to Chaparral High School.
Scottsdale police Sergeant Mark Clark tells New Times that Schwartz did some minor damage in the church, including breaking a glass fire extinguisher case, urinating, and smoking cigarettes inside the church.
Apparently, Schwartz tried to exit the church several times once the cops arrived, but would run back in as soon as he saw police officers.
Police negotiators convinced Schwartz to surrender after an hour and a half, and he was transported to the Scottsdale city jail.
But Schwartz, who police say exhibited signs of alcohol and drug impairment, wasn’t quite done racking up felony charges.
Once he was transported to the jail, police say he got into a scuffle with detention officers, adding a charge of assault on an officer atop burglary and criminal damage charges.
Clark says it isn’t known whether Schwartz is of the Mormon faith, and his motives for breaking into the church are unknown.
