A former Florida pastor has been charged with orchestrating the theft of $1.4 million worth of merchandise from Home Depot and then selling the stolen goods on eBay as the state’s top law enforcement official highlights his apparent violation of one of the Ten Commandments declaring “thou shall not steal.”
As explained in a statement published Monday by the office of Florida’s Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody, Pinellas County-based pastor Robert Dell was charged with leading a “multimillion-dollar theft ring” following an investigation from the Florida Organized Retail Crime Exchange taskforce and other state law enforcement agencies. According to Moody, “This pastor clearly skipped over the commandment—thou shall not steal.”
“Our FORCE taskforce shut down his criminal operation stealing millions of [dollars’] worth of merchandise from Home Depot stores across the state to resell the items on eBay,” she added. “We will not tolerate organized retail theft in Florida and my office will continue to combat these criminal organizations.”
The Florida Attorney General’s Office identified Dell as “a pastor of The Rock Church and the founder of a halfway house serving those recovering from drug addiction in St. Petersburg.” The investigation, a collaboration between the FORCE taskforce, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement, revealed that Dell “worked with four accomplices to shoplift Milwaukee, Dewalt and other branded products from Home Depot stores.”