c. 2006 Religion News Service

SAYREVILLE, N.J. _ Detectives investigating the theft of a baby Jesus statue from an outdoor Nativity scene at a Sayreville church followed a trail on Monday (Jan. 2) that led them to the missing statue _ and 26 other baby Jesus figurines.

Police said they assumed all 27 statues had been stolen, although they did not know from where.

Police spread the figurines out on a counter at police headquarters to take inventory. All lay, in swaddling clothes, on their backs.

“It looks like a nursery here,” said police spokesman Ken Kelly.

The figurines, most of them plastic, were found stashed “in plain view” in a car parked outside the home of Christopher Olson, 18, of Old Bridge, N.J.,police said.

Detectives canvassing the church neighborhood on Sunday had been given a description of a “suspicious” car by residents, police said.

Authorities jailed Olson and two other men _ Michael Payne, 19, of Old Bridge, and Nicholas Hess, 18, of Matawan _ in connection with the theft of the Nativity infant from St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, and the desecration of objects at the church’s cemetery. A 15-year-old boy was also taken into custody.

Payne’s truck contained several items from the church cemetery, police said.

“It was supposed to be some kind of Jesus burning party. I guess they were going to burn everything up,” Kelly said, adding that local prosecutors would determine whether the incident constituted a bias crime.

“There was nothing sprayed or written. Is it a crime against Christians? I don’t know. We’ll be looking at that,” Kelly said.

Frank Payne, the father of Michael Payne, said the theft “wasn’t a hate crime.”

“Michael has been hanging around the wrong people. He goes to college. He’s an outstanding young kid,” he said.

The discovery brought relief to the parishioners of St. Stanislaus Church, who had taken the theft of their statue very hard, according to the Rev. Ken Murphy, their pastor.

The theft, as well as the theft of a smaller baby Jesus from the church’s school and the toppling of a 15-foot crucifix in the church’s cemetery, took place late last week (Dec. 30 or 31).

“As I told people …, the most important thing is, we celebrated the birth of Jesus,” he said. “Jesus is in many different places. If they saw the display and saw he wasn’t there, they would be reminded that he is in them.”

Sayreville police called the pastor about 11 a.m. on Monday to report that they might have found the statue. Murphy drove to Old Bridge and identified it.

Because Polish tradition calls for keeping Nativity scenes on display for 40 days after Christmas, the statue soon will be restored to its place in the manger. But first, he said, “police said they had to dust it for fingerprints.”

The plaster statue, life-sized and more than 25 years old, was easy to identify as it had a fresh coat of paint, Murphy said.

The priest said he himself was not sure religious bias played any role in the theft.

“As aggravating as it is, I know these things happen. Children do pranks. It has happened in other places I have been, from Christmas displays both religious and secular,” he said. “I’m just so happy the infant has been returned.”

By late Monday, word of the baby Jesus stash had begun to circulate in Old Bridge.

Lou Saverese, a resident of the street where the car was found, said a mystery had been solved. About three weeks before Christmas, he said, the baby Jesus in his Nativity scene disappeared.

“My wife thought the wind might have taken it away, but then we noticed other people on the block were also missing their baby Jesus,” he said.

Then, in a park down the road, he saw two more plastic Jesus figures hanging from a telephone pole. Police cut them down.

“Hopefully, they got the right people,” he said. “Kids should know better.”

KRE/JL END PATTERSON

(Mary Jo Patterson writes for The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

Editors: To obtain a photo of the stolen statues, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.