By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

GAINESVILLE—Reflecting the many dimensions of the Catholic call to seek justice, Father Serge Ward, pastor of St. Michael Church, and churchgoer Tom Cook helped police to nab a woman March 23 who had fled a drug store with cosmetics and sunglasses.

Father Ward was talking with Cook, a Gainesville newcomer whose stepmother is a parishioner the priest was visiting, outside Town Center Shopping Center on Browns Bridge Road at about 2:30 p.m. They spied a woman running across the parking lot, being pursued by an Eckerd Drugs employee who reportedly called out, “I saw you steal this stuff.”

The woman then dumped goods from her purse beneath a car before taking off again. Fortunately for the police, she also left her wallet. Father Ward said he and Cook started walking quickly after her, hesitating initially and having to “brave up a little bit.”

“She didn’t look like she knew what she was going to do. She kind of looked like a wild woman,” he said.

As the suspect ran to Pearl Nix Parkway, Father Ward and Cook lost sight of her around Captain D’s Seafood, before being tipped off by an employee that a woman matching her description had entered the restaurant. They next saw her get into the back of a truck, which Cook approached in order to get the license plate number.

“We don’t believe it was hers, just the way she looked around before getting into it,” Cook said in a March 25 article in The Gainesville Times. Then the truck’s driver got inside, pulled out and was stopped at a traffic light on Pearl Nix Parkway about the time Gainesville police and Hall County sheriff’s officers, having been called by Eckerd, arrived.

In The Times article, Hall County Sheriff’s Lt. Gib Cronic said that the suspect, Barbara Kathleen Nation, 39, had actually been waiting for a prescription at Eckerd before bolting. He also said the driver was surprised to learn he had a suspect in his truck.

Nation, from Demorest, was charged with a misdemeanor count of theft by shoplifting. The parish crime-fighters returned to the parking lot where they offered a helping hand to the employee, retrieving the stolen merchandise from under the vehicle. “I have long arms,” Father Ward told the Gainesville newspaper.

Father Ward said he and Cook did equal work to help police catch her by keeping watch on her and noted the determination and dedication of the Eckerd employee, who responded quickly and was not afraid to pursue the women. While he’d like to think of himself as practicing a virtuous act, Father Ward said he was more curious than anything.

“We were by-standing witnesses and very curious, which is not a virtue,” he said. “We were just one link in a long chain that worked together.”

Showing gratitude, the Eckerd employee afterward offered Cook an iced tea, as well as a job.

Father Ward spoke with Nation’s friend who had accompanied her to the store and learned she suffers from a mental disorder that influenced her behavior. He’s added her to his prayer list.

“It was a sad situation. She needs prayer. I think it was more of a mental situation than about stealing. I don’t think she had evil intention. I think she was just confused about where she was.”

The priest thought his encounters with crime were behind him until April 8 when he pulled into the Gainesville Wal-Mart. He saw three or four employees running through the parking lot, one with a walkie-talkie, chasing after another shoplifter, and police pulling up. But this time he never saw the thief, who sped away in a car.

“I arrived a little too late,” he said. “I think the shoplifter made the getaway. I had to chuckle to myself. I have a knack for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Although the incidents haven’t been homily material, “my desire to consider doing chaplaincy work for the police department has increased, to work for the system of justice,” he said. “It has increased my awareness of the need to pray for those who are in law enforcement. They have a difficult job and an important job.”

For now he looks forward to a more relaxed outing with Cook at My Brew Heaven. For Lent he gave up “all liquids except water. I look forward to reminiscing with Tom Cook after Easter over a beer.”