Drug-Addict Pastor Won’t Stop Robbing His Flock

When Tennessee pastor Rickey Reed found he didn’t get high enough on opium for the masses, he decided to try illegally tripping on pain pills instead. And who better to steal them from than the people who trusted him with their eternal life?

A Smyrna pastor caught on tape trying to break into a church member’s home for drugs in 2011 has been arrested again after police say he burglarized the home of another former church member in Antioch.

Rickey Alan Reed, 56, remained jailed Tuesday on $32,500 bond in Davidson County on a single count each of felony aggravated burglary and misdemeanor theft under $500. He was already on probation after pleading guilty in 2011 to aggravated burglary in Rutherford County, avoiding a four-year prison sentence by begging a judge for mercy, forgiveness and a chance to treat his addiction.

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But Jewel Proper, 70, said none of it worked. Instead she found him the morning of Aug. 8 standing in her Antioch home with her pain medication.

“I opened the back door and there he stood in the kitchen. I grabbed him by his shirt and I said, ‘I got you now, you ain’t goin’ nowhere,’ ” Proper said. “He kept saying, ‘Jewel, let me go.’ I said, ‘No! You stole my medicine.’ ” …

Reed was pastor of First Free Methodist Church in Smyrna until he was caught on video July 4, 2011, breaking into the home of Jean Harris, a member of his church. Harris turned the video over to Smyrna police, who have said they had seen similar allegations that he had broken into homes hunting for pain pills.