Thief returns Jesus' statue to German priest in person

A man who stole a valuable statue of Jesus from a church in the German town of Moehnesee returned days later to hand it back to the priest in person.

"He came over, rang the bell and pulled the figure out from under his hooded jacket," Father Ludger Eilebrecht said on Friday.

During a subsequent conversation, the thief told the priest that he had stolen the statue because he wanted to explain his problems to Jesus in person, Eilebrecht said.

"Thank goodness the figure is safe and undamaged. The whole parish is happy that it is back. It's already back in its place," he said.

Though Eilebrecht could not provide information about the value of the figure, he said its value to the community was "inestimable."

The Jesus figure disappeared from the 300-year-old Saint Pancras, or Pancratius, Church on Saturday. The priest had promised that anyone who returned it would not face punishment.

---GNA