It’s just been the worst couple months for baby Jesus ever. The day after Christmas, strangers kidnapped a Jesus figurine from its home in the manger of Frank McKee’s nativity scene in West Manchester Township, Pa. For months, McKee had no idea where his personal Jesus had gone.
“It’s terrible, really,” he told the York Daily Record at the time. “But we’d just like people to know we’d like it back.”
That was until last week, when a photo of the kidnapped Jesus suddenly popped up on McKee’s Facebook feed. He called the Township cops, who apparently dropped all their other work to chase the saucy lead. Facing heat from authorities, the man caved in. He’d stolen Jesus, he admitted, along with another perpetrator, a juvenile. At the kid’s home, police found the figurine. Case closed.
Lots of criminals have done stupid things on Facebook. In April 2012, Kentucky criminal mastermind Michael Baker snapped photos of himself siphoning fuel from a police cruiser, then posted them to Facebook. Police busted him shortly thereafter. (“lol i went too jail over facebook,” he wrote, on Facebook.) In Brooklyn, N.Y., meanwhile, an entire gang of criminals bragged about their criminal enterprises on Facebook. Their gang didn’t last very long.
We’re not sure about the context of the Jesus-thieves Facebook post. Were they bragging about their crime, or proudly displaying the figurine as their own? Police are keeping mum on the story and the perpetrators’ identities “due to further investigation into other incidents.” (Did these guys have a whole basement full of bound and gagged baby Jesuses or something?)
For now, the baby Jesus is back in his manger. Or more likely wrapped up in old newspapers and stuffed into the crawlspace over McKee’s garage.
Photo by cdsessums/Flickr