Sandy McGriff, 52, said she was trying to protect valuables at the home of her longtime friend Serita Agnew and made a horrible mistake.

Police accuse McGriff of stealing more than $10,000 worth of fur coats, designer purses and electronics from a home in the 2200 block of Village Way near Kiest Boulevard and Lancaster Road. She was also charged with resisting arrest.

McGriff spent most of Christmas Day in jail and was released on $26,000 bail in time for Sunday morning services at The Church of the Living God. The sanctuary is in the back of her husband's furniture store on Lancaster Road in east Oak Cliff .

McGriff invited reporters to her Grand Prairie home Monday to tell her side of the story.

She said she had been in Agnew's east Oak Cliff neighborhood on Friday evening to pick up a peach cobbler from a friend. "Something just told me to go past her house," McGriff said.

McGriff said that when she did, she saw two men coming out from the side of Agnew's house. She said she pulled her black Jaguar into the driveway and walked around the home. That's when she saw the broken kitchen window.

"My mistake was I did not call 911," McGriff said. "I just used poor judgment."

She said she cleared away shards of glass, stood on a barrel and climbed in through the window. She said she was trying to protect Agnew's valuables in case the men came back.

"I thought I was helping," McGriff said.

She grabbed a laptop from the bedroom and three designer purses and put them in the Jaguar's back seat. Police arrived about 5:30 p.m. to see her carrying two fur coats out the back door, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Agnew's neighbor David Nanez had a different version of events. He said Monday that he had just come home from work when he saw a woman at Agnew's house. They waved at each other. Nanez said he kept watching as the woman hit the window with something. He said she tried to use an 8-foot wooden ladder to get in the window, but she slipped. So she got a 5-gallon bucket from the backyard to boost herself through the window, he said.

Nanez, whose house had been burglarized three weeks earlier, said the situation didn't look right. "I called police just in case something was wrong."

Nanez said police arrived with guns drawn as McGriff made a second trip from the house to her car. He said he never saw the two men that McGriff mentions, but he did see her giving police a hard time after she was arrested.

McGriff said she told police about the two men and that she had spoken with Agnew earlier that evening. The police report states she told officers her friend had sent her to pick up the coats. It makes no mention of the two men.

Officers used McGriff's cellphone to call Agnew, who told police she hadn't given anyone permission to enter her home.

McGriff was arrested, handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car. She said that she was being compliant but that the handcuffs were hurting her. The officers wouldn't listen, she said.

"I just kept twisting and twisting until I got them off," she said of the cuffs.

She said several officers then dragged her out of the car, pulled her by the hair and held her down with a knee on her head. Officers recuffed her and put plastic ties on her ankles, she said.

"It was unnecessary force," McGriff said. "You just don't treat a woman like that."

The police report stated that when officers tried to recuff her, she refused their "loud verbal commands" to put her hands behind her back. She tried to push and pull away from officers with both arms and kicked and tried to scratch one officer, the report states.

McGriff said officers had to carry her from the patrol car into the jail, where she was treated in the hospital ward for high blood pressure. She was released on bail late Saturday.

McGriff said she had food, including Cornish hens and celery, for Christmas dinner in her trunk at the time of her arrest.

"I don't know of a burglar that's going to go shopping for groceries and then go commit a burglary," she said.

The arrest report states that McGriff was not sober at the time of her arrest. McGriff said she takes pain medication for a back injury but wasn't under the influence of anything at the time of her arrest.

She told her story from her living room couch, where she was surrounded by her nine fur coats. She said she has no reason to steal Agnew's coats or anything else.

"I don't stand in the need of anything," she said.

The police report lists McGriff as Kathy Robinson. McGriff said that's a fake name she used during her troubled youth. A Dallas police spokesman said in general that any previous names used when someone is arrested would stay with that person's record. A public records search lists 14 name variations and six birth dates for McGriff. She said her maiden name was on there along with her daughter's name and the fake name she thought she'd put behind her many years ago.

"Since 1988, I have walked the straight and narrow path," McGriff said.

She acknowledges having a criminal record, including a prostitution conviction in 1975. But she disputes the convictions from the 1980s for illegal use of credit cards that turn up in a search of public records under her name. She said she's fought with a credit bureau about being confused with a woman with a similar name and Social Security number.

"When it comes to credit cards, I don't play around," McGriff said.

She said she hopes to continue to expand her church, which she started in September. The congregation numbers about 30. She said she sees herself as a messenger for the word of God. At Sunday services, she told everyone what happened.

"My church was full for support," she said. "The people that come to support me brought tears to my eyes."

The woman whose home McGriff is accused of burglarizing said Monday she loved her as a pastor and a friend but hasn't returned McGriff's phone messages since the arrest. Agnew said she had recently stopped going to McGriff's church and doesn't plan to go back.

"I'm hurt. I'm devastated," she said. "My neighbor saw her break into my house. What is there to explain?"

Agnew said she's trying not to be angry but has no doubt her pastor was trying to steal from her.

"I hope she finds her way," Agnew said.