Following up on his alleged desire to “take something from someone … something shiny and cool, like a cup,” Merrimack resident Erik Hans Heaney settled on the Church of the Good Shepherd and began looking around on Sunday.

According to police, Heaney, who was smoking a cigarette, ended up approaching the altar, where he allegedly grabbed a chalice and began walking out. But a woman police described as a church volunteer confronted Heaney, telling him he “needed to drop the chalice and leave the church.”

Instead, police said, Heaney responded to the volunteer “by saying something to the effect of ‘this is on stolen land, so I can take this.’”

Seeing the commotion, a male church volunteer intervened, but Heaney allegedly “shouldered” him to move him out of the way then exited the church,

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