EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. – A 70-year-old grandmother was caught stealing the baby Jesus from the city’s nativity scene, police said.
A carriage driver tipped off police, who quickly caught up with her van. Virginia Voiers was ticketed for misdemeanor theft, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
“It was a lark, it wasn’t any serious stealing,” Voiers said. “My granddaughter commented that no one had taken the baby Jesus this year and said, ‘Grandma?’ I said, ‘Oh, what the heck.’”
The baby Jesus has often been kidnapped in the past, and usually is quickly returned by the thief. Voiers said her Saturday caper was the first time she’d taken anything from the nativity scene.
“I didn’t know we had a tattletale downtown,” said Voiers, a Sunday school teacher. She said she told her pastor what had happened.
“He said, ‘Bless you, child. Go and sin no more,’” she said, adding that he asked, ” ‘You didn’t tell them you are a Methodist, did you?’”
This year, the nativity scene was accessorized with a security camera monitored at police headquarters.
A dispatcher saw the theft and put out a call to officers.
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