Baby Jesus taken from Wichita church’s Nativity scene is returned

Update

The Church of the Blessed Sacrament reported on its Facebook page Friday morning that the Baby Jesus from its nativity scene had been returned.

Original story

Baby Jesus has gone missing from the Nativity scene of a Wichita church the day after the Christmas holiday.

“Sadly, the Baby Jesus is missing again this year from our Nativity scene out front,” the Church of the Blessed Sacrament said Thursday in a Facebook post. “We would love Him back, no questions asked.”

The church did not say whether a police report has been filed.

The disappearance of the Nativity scene child comes nearly two years after he was stolen and later returned to the Catholic church at Douglas and Roosevelt in east Wichita. The baby statue was stolen from a manger filled with hay outside the church in January 2018. It was later found in a yard in the College Hill neighborhood and returned to the parish office at 124 N. Roosevelt. That theft happened a few days before Epiphany.

A year before that, a lamb was stolen from the same Nativity scene and never returned. Previous thefts include two kings, a shepherd, a sheep and a camel, among other statues that have gone missing.

This story was originally published December 26, 2019 at 4:26 PM.