I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but apparently there are numerous thefts of baby Jesus from nativity scenes. Video surveillance has probably deterred some of the potential thefts, and so have fences around the scenes. Now some churches are resorting to using built-in GPS trackers to locate and recover the stolen baby Jesus [ht MA].
Each year, Baby Jesus figurines are stolen from nativity scenes across the country. Now, church owners are fighting back.
A GPS device is put inside the doll to prevent theft.
"And the beauty of this is it really works and it's simple to use,” said Alan Czyzewski, Parishioner at St. Ambrose Church in New Jersey.
Brickhouse Securities gives out free GPS devices to qualified religious institutions. Then they track the movements.
"We then monitor it from our cloud-based mapping system, and set up alerts so that they'll get a text message or an e-mail if Baby Jesus is in motion,” said Todd Morris, CEO of Brickhouse Securities.
If the motion is detected early enough, the theft can be prevented, as in, "Hey, what are you doing there? Put the baby Jesus back!"
Otherwise, the figurine can be tracked and located more often than not.
What are the odds alcohol is involved in the thefts?