'Whacked out' couple make trouble at Mass

UPPER DARBY, Pa., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Police in Pennsylvania said they arrested a "whacked out" couple after a midnight mass that featured the pair fondling each other and flushing drugs.

Upper Darby Police said Alexander Pirone, 21, and Catherine McGrath, 24, entered St. Charles Borromeo Church in Drexel Hill shortly after the start of midnight mass on Christmas Eve and officer Samuel Sproull, who was on duty at the event, described the pair as "whacked out," the Philadelphia Daily News reported Thursday.

"At one point in time, they were fondling one another in the pew to the point where a couple of the churchgoers had to tell them to stop acting like morons," Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.

Chitwood said Sproull found the couple in the church's basement after the Mass. He said the officer inspected the bathroom after McGrath flushed a toilet and found four plastic bags of the type typically used to transport heroin.

Investigators said they believe the pair planned to hide out in the basement and burgle the church once everyone left the facility.

McGrath and Pirone were arrested and charged with narcotics violations and public drunkenness.