Priest accused by cops of spending over $40,000 of church funds on Sweet Crush and Pokémon Go, says it may need occurred as a result of he isn’t a ‘particulars man’

In what’s turning into one thing of a operating theme for PCG’s information protection this week, a Catholic priest in Pottstown, Pennsylvania has been accused by police of dropping over $40,000 of the Church’s cash on cell video games. Particularly, Sweet Crush, Mario Kart Tour, Pokémon Go, varied slot machine and hidden object video games, and Money Frenzy.

As reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer (by way of Kotaku), the Reverend Lawrence Kozak was charged by PA cops of utilizing a bank card tied to Saint Thomas Extra Parish to spend $41,879.83 on addictive video games over a number of years. Per the police affidavit, incongruous purchases on the church’s bank card stretch again to 2019, and the scenario was first delivered to police consideration by church officers in 2022.

At the moment, Kozak was introduced in for a chat with police wherein he instructed investigators that he had each his private financial institution card and the parish bank card related to his iPhone, as a result of the latter was used to pay for “streaming” and “Microsoft Workplace.” Kozak stated he hadn’t deliberately used the parish card for his in-game purchases, however may need unintentionally executed so as a result of was not a “particulars man,” and often simply seemed on the backside line of a invoice earlier than hitting pay. Kozak additionally defined that his purchases have been about “powering up,” slightly than playing.

Paperwork obtained by police embrace “A spreadsheet containing Apple transactions related to the Apple ID… related to Kozak between 12/30/18 and 06/15/22.” These information present a grand whole of $214,265.08 in transactions throughout that four-year interval, some with order numbers according to irregular transactions discovered on the church’s personal monetary information. Different information present Kozak making funds in the direction of the church’s bank card stability from a private checking account, totalling $10,600.

On high of the Apple transactions for in-game boosts, different information present that an Amazon account related to Kozak had additionally used parish funds to purchase a Fireplace Pill and child’s backpack that have been shipped to Kozak’s goddaughter, with notes signed by “Uncle Larry.”

All of which, little question, seemed fairly damning to church officers, who positioned Kozak on administrative go away in November 2022. In 2023, Kozak’s substitute at Saint Thomas Extra Parish Thomas Kletzel instructed police he had acquired a letter from Kozak containing a cheque for $8,000 for “Parish reimbursement” alongside a handwritten letter studying “I’m so sorry that I made this error which has been any supply of stress for you.” 

In 2023, the parish’s enterprise supervisor expressed scepticism to police that Kozak can be unaware of his purchases on the parish bank card. Kozak was charged final Thursday with theft and different, related crimes, and has since been launched after posting $250,000 bail.

Throughout his interview with the police, Kozak stated he was looking for counselling for his struggles with videogame dependancy, which is—whatever the particulars of Kozak’s private scenario—a really actual and sinister drawback.