Local honorees: Pictured are (from left) 8th PDAC vice president Charlie Kueny, community relations officer Joe Hansbury, Sgt. John Venit, police officer Denny Clair, police chaplains Nancy Waibel and Dave Crawford. SOURCE: ELSIE STEVENS / 8TH PDAC
Police Officers Denny Clair and Chris Hanejko and their supervisor, Sgt. John Venit, have earned special recognition from the 8th Police District Advisory Council for their arrest of a man who allegedly stole money from a local church.
Venit, Clair and Hanejko were named Officers of the Month during the PDAC’s meeting on March 2.
Last month, the three award recipients hatched a plan to solve a series of thefts from the poor box at Our Lady of Calvary Church. On at least two prior occasions, an unknown person entered the locked church at night and pried open the donation box. Venit, Clair and Hanejko figured the thief was bound to return to the crime scene eventually, so Clair and Hanejko began camping inside the church on Feb. 24.
Sure enough, at about 9 p.m. on Feb. 26, a man allegedly entered the church and tried to open the donation box. Clair and Hanejko chased the man outside and captured him. The officers later discovered that the suspect had a key to the church that he claimed he had found in the parking lot. ••
