Repentant robber arrested

COEUR d'ALENE - This was a remorseful robber.

Not only did he leave a handful of $20s to partially pay for the prescription pills he stole Monday night, the next day he confessed to a pastor.

It didn't keep him from being arrested Tuesday.

The pastor the man turned to called the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department. Detectives then met with Egan Barred Logan IV at the Rathdrum Police Department Tuesday morning.

Logan, 39, "admitted he was the individual that had robbed the Walgreens Drug Store the prior evening."

The Twin Lakes man is being held at the Kootenai County jail on charges of robbery and possession of a controlled substance, both felonies. He is scheduled for his first appearance at 2 p.m. today.

According to a police report, a man entered the store on Honeysuckle Avenue at 8:45 p.m. Monday and asked the pharmacist for Adarol, a drug used for individuals with hyper anxiety.

The pharmacist told the man he needed a prescription, the police report said.

When the suspect told the pharmacist he couldn't get a prescription, the pharmacist said he couldn't buy the pills.

"I guess I have to rob you," the suspect reportedly said.

The pharmacist, "following her department policy," took two bottles of Adarol from behind a locked glass cabinet and gave them to the man.

The man did not display a weapon and the pharmacist told police she did not believe he had one.

The suspect left $300 on the counter, then fled with $553 worth of pills in a black Toyota sedan, the report said.

On Tuesday, detectives from the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department received information from a local church pastor that she had been in contact with the possible suspect from Monday night's robbery at the Hayden Walgreens Drug Store.

That led to Logan's arrest.

The rules for how churches handle criminal confessions aren't exactly etched in stone.

Father Roger LaChance of St. Pius X Catholic Church said anything revealed in a sacramental confession in the church is confidential.

If something is told outside the church, say at a home or an office, the pastor might tell the person they have a responsibility to God, to others, to themselves, to do what is right, to be truthful.

"Basically, he's asking my advice," LaChance said. "You try to ask them, 'What do you want me to do?'"

"Do I have responsibility for turning him in? No," he added.

Ron Hunter, pastor of Coeur d'Alene Church of the Nazarene, said if someone confesses about something they did that was illegal, he would tell them they need to make restitution. If a law was broken, they will have to face the penalties, Hunter said.

"There has to be accountability in the world," he said.

Hunter said if someone confessed to a crime, he would encourage them to turn themselves in, usually within a week or so.

"For the pastor to tell is a little out of character," he said. "Normally, you wouldn't straight turn somebody in."

While most laws protect ministers and confidentially, LaChance and Hunter said there are laws that require a minister to report any confessions of sexual abuse.