Off The Beat: Why is a stranger in pink swiping pizza ingredients from my house?

FORT PIERCE — When a man in Fort Pierce returned home after a short time out, he found something unexpected in his residence.

Or rather, someone unexpected.

Specifically, a strange woman in a pink shirt drinking soda from his refrigerator.

The 56-year-old woman later would tell St. Lucie County sheriff’s investigators she was hungry so she took the makings for a pizza, an arrest affidavit states.

More: Man tells police wind may have blown bag of cocaine in car

What could be called the case of the peckish pilferer happened Nov. 6 in the 2500 block of Rolyat Street.

When the man got home, he said he heard a noise in his commode, and saw a woman in his abode.

Asked who she was and why she was inside, the woman left, yet kept imbibing his soda, a non-alcoholic, sweetened carbonated beverage sold in bottles and cans.

The man apparently followed the woman to an address in the 2500 block of Kerr Street.

More: Pooch's poop begets argument, arrest in Jensen Beach

Deputies reported the woman, who had a pink purse, knocked on the front door of the Kerr Street residence.

She said she was conducting “welfare checks in the neighborhood.”

That, she said, is why she went in the home on Rolyat Street.

She said she was hungry, so grabbed a soda and the ingredients to make a pizza, a dish often cited as originating in Naples, Italy, that features dough topped with tomato sauce, cheese and other items, such as pepperoni and mushrooms.

More: Finger pointing flap reaches point of no return

People typically shop for ingredients for pizza, along with dishes such as tuna casserole, goulash, barbecue chicken and clams casino, at a grocery store, such as Publix or Winn-Dixie, as opposed to private residences on Rolyat Street.

The woman also said she used the restroom, and “on accident” picked up the victim’s debit card.

The woman, a Fort Pierce resident, was arrested on a felony burglary charge.