| 27-October-2011 -- EWTNews Feature |
Police are searching for an historic 5,300-pound church bell stolen from the grounds of St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco.
"We cannot replace this historic and valuable item," said George Wesolek, the Archdiocese of San Francisco's Director of Communications and Public Policy. "Hopefully, the police will recover it, and we can put it back in its rightful place as a memory of the Catholic Church of San Francisco."
Suspected metal thieves took the bell from its secluded wooden platform outside the cathedral sometime in the last month. A parishioner noticed it was missing on Sunday morning.
The bell is over five feet in diameter and is about four feet tall. It was ordered as a gift for the cathedral in August 1889 and shipped directly from the McShane Bell Foundry of Baltimore, Maryland.
Police Inspector Brian Danker told the San Francisco Chronicle that the bell must have been lifted by a crane and carted away by a truck larger than average-size.
The bell survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire and an arson attack in 1962.
The bell has an estimated replacement value of $75,000. It is 80 percent copper and 20 percent tin. The current scrap value of copper is about $2 to $2.50 per pound.
Wesolek told the Chronicle that if the bell is not recovered it's uncertain whether the church can afford to replace it.
The church has offered an unspecified reward for anyone who helps return the bell or catch the thieves. Anyone with information is asked to call the police.
"It is a priceless artifact," said Danker. "It belongs back with the parishioners."
In another theft, thieves also stole several thousand dollars worth of copper from a building owned by Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School.
Read more: http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=4238#ixzz1c1KozP19
No comments:
Post a Comment