Wedding-gift thief nabbed after chase

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

JOPLIN, Mo. — A Kansas couple who had just renewed their wedding vows got a shock when a man tried to steal wedding gifts from the reception and the groom ran after him shouting “Stop! Thief! Stop!”

Jared Lightle of Galena, Kan., was outside during the reception Saturday with his wife, Stephanie, at the Scottish Rite Temple in downtown Joplin when his mother yelled that someone had taken cards from a gift table in the lobby.

Lightle said he saw a man across the street with wedding cards in his hand and yelled at him to stop.

But the suspect began running and Lightle took off after him.

Police who were investigating a traffic accident nearby caught the suspect, The Joplin Globe reported. Rosario Caruso, 31, of Lamar was charged with trespassing, larceny and resisting arrest.

“If we hadn’t caught the guy, it would have ended an otherwise perfect celebration on a very bitter note,” Lightle said.

The couple were left with the hassle of trying to match recovered gift cards and cash with the gift givers.

The Lightles were renewing their vows Saturday to mark one year after their wedding at a courthouse near Fort Hood, Texas, just before Jared Lightle, a combat engineer with the 1st Cavalry Division, was deployed to Afghanistan. The Joplin ceremony, with 175 guests, was the traditional wedding that the couple planned for when he returned.

“I guess we’re going to have a very unique wedding story to tell the rest of our lives,” Lightle said.