'Is nothing sacred?!' Jesus statue is the latest in a string of SoCal bronze thefts
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Set us as preferred For the faithful entering Christ Our Savior Catholic Parish in Santa Ana, the statue of Saint John the Baptist placing holy water on the head of Jesus represented a core tenant of Christianity.But, police say, thieves who arrived at the church under the cover of darkness last month likely saw the artwork as representing something more worldly: quick cash.
Police say two men cut through a chain link fence at the church property around 2 a.m.on Aug.
30 and took an electric saw to the statue.In surveillance video, the men are seen slicing the depiction of Jesus at the ankles and carting it away.
Only the feet and the stone base of the $50,000 installation were left behind.Saint John the Baptist remains.
But many worry the church and other locations across the region that display bronze artwork will continue to be targeted.“It feels like a violation,” said Tustin Mayor Austin Lumbard, whose city has also been the setting for bronze thefts in recent months.Metal theft has been an intractable problem in Southern California for years, with bandits pulling out copper wire in streetlights — plunging neighborhoods into darkness — and from rail lines, pilfering pipes from construction sites and vacant buildings, and sawing catalytic converters off cars for scrap.
The 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles epitomizes the problem with rampant metal theft.Famously hailed as a “ribbon of light,” the bridge has been dark for more than a year after thieves ripped off more than seven miles of copper wire that helped illuminate its arches.
The metal likely netted the thieves upward of $11,000, but officials say it will cost taxpayers millions to restore the lights.Now, as the price of copper continues to rise, thieves are turning their attention to bronze statues and commemorative plaques.
“I call this an emerge...