Stolen Documents Dating Back To Late 1800s Return To San Francisco Church
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Documents including baptismal and marriage records dating back to the 1800s stolen from a San Francisco church have been recovered in a Dumpster, officials announced Monday.
The records contained in 20 leather bound ledgers were stored in a refrigerator-size safe that was stolen from St. Dominic's Catholic Church on the evening of March 12.
"Aside from over $9,000 in gift cards were stolen that we usually give to the poor, something much more irreplaceable had been taken from our community," church officials posted on their Facebook page. "Our sacramental records, which contains the history of our parish dating back to the late 1800s, have been taken from us."
The safe was later found by police cut open and empty in San Francisco's Bayview District.
Pastor Father Michael Hurley told the Catholic San Francisco that the documents were discovered on March 15th in a nearby dumpster by a Good Samaritan, who returned them to the church.
"This is a holy moment of grace," Hurley said in a post on the parish Facebook page .
Hurley added that church officials "acknowledge that our church needs to upgrade our security efforts, and we are working on that straightaway. Thank you for your patience and care."