Stolen baby Jesus statue returned to Daley Plaza
Published: December 10, 2004
You’ve heard of the grinch whole stole Christmas-but what about the student who stole Christ, the statue?
There was the grinch who stole Christmas and now, twice in the last five years, there has been the grinch who stole the baby Jesus statue from the nativity scene in Daley Plaza. Both times the statue was recovered by police and then returned. This morning, this latest incident of “Christmas spirit thievery” came to an end.
You can’t have a nativity scene without the baby Jesus– but for the last two days that’s the way it’s been at Daley Plaza. The statue was stolen early Sunday morning by a 19-year-old student from the school of the art institute. Mathew Staib was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for somehow stealing the statue which was securely wired.
“Cabled down, cabled down with a padlock and he mentioned that he got in and worked it underneath somehow, underneath the feet and slid it out. So we’ll work harder than ever to keep it right the next time. We don’t want this thing leaving here all the time that’s for sure,” said Jim Finnegan, nativity scene committee.
Finnegan’s grandchildren brought the baby Jesus home, which was much more pleasant than five years ago when the statue was found in a Union Station locker. This is the way Christmas stories should end.
Yes this has happened before. Here in Chicago — and in Hollywood in 1953. Fifty one years ago that case was solved by the police too. Sergeant Joe Friday and … Dragnet. Friday was trying to find out who stole the baby Jesus from a neighborhood church. It turned out to be a little boy who had prayed for a little red wagon. He got the wagon and in return had given the baby Jesus a ride.
A happy ending there and a happy ending here as well.
“I was really upset about how it was stolen,” said Maggie O’Malley, who helped put the Christ back in Christmas. “Yeah and it felt good.”
By the way, the statue is now more secure than ever.
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