BALDWIN, Fla. -- A Jacksonville man was arrested on charges of stealing gingerbread men from the town of Baldwin and police said he tried to sell them to get money to buy drugs.

It happened about a block from city hall where someone stole two gingerbread men from the city's Coleman House Christmas display. City workers said they saw the plastic holiday decorations a few days later in the basket of a local man's bicycle as he rode down the street. One day later, the workers saw the decorations again out in front of a consignment store.

“A guy came in he had gingerbread men on his bicycle,” said Jennifer Chafin, owner of Jennifer's This And That store. “He asked if I wanted to buy them.”

The store's owner said she offered the man $4 for them.

“People sell me things all the time, I didn't think anything of it,” Chafin said.

Peter Paul Drake, 41, of Jacksonville, was arrested and charged with dealing in stolen property.

Police said he gave them a story that a woman pulled up in a car and asked him to sell the gingerbread men for her and give her some of the money. The report said he eventually told them that was a lie. It said he hocked the ornaments for some drug money.

Drake was being held in the Duval County jail on $753 bond.

 

 

 

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