Two people stole a beloved Virgin Mary statue from a Montgomery County, Maryland, church earlier this month.
Surveillance video shows two people get out of a car at Our Lady of Visitation in Darnestown, walk toward the 2-foot-tall statue, pick it up, bring it back to the car and drive away.
“Normally, I would bow to the statue that would be here and say, ‘Good morning, Mary,’” Father Greg Shaffer said. “Noticed that she wasn’t here and started freaking out.”
Shaffer said he can’t understand why someone would do this.
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“It’s like if somebody took something of your mother, like a picture of your mother that was very important to you,” he said. “It’s just personal. It’s just deeply personal for us. Mary’s like our mother.”
Shaffer says if the thieves return the statue, there will be no questions asked. The church said it does not plan to press charges, it just wants the statue back.
“We’re praying for them,” Shaffer said. “We spent the weekend, at the masses this weekend, praying for the two people, for the statue to be returned, but also for their change of heart. Just that they have some kind of contrition and experience that we hope one day to have a relationship with Mary themselves.”
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It’s not the first time something like this has happened in Montgomery County. Last month, surveillance video captured a man taking a large gorilla statue from an antique store in Kensington.
