Plaque Stolen From Sacramento Church On Christmas

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Churchgoers made a shocking discovery — an ungodly act committed by desperate thieves, and to top it all off, on Christmas Day.

"I don't believe it," said Northminster Presbyterian volunteer Darlene Edwards on Monday. "I can't believe it on Christmas morning. I don't know who would do that."

The brass and bronze plaque once bolted into the brick near the church entrance is now gone.

"The bushes are right there so they really had to make an effort to get there," Edwards said.

Darlene believes the theft happened between Christmas Eve mass and Christmas morning, but what's most disturbing she says is that thieves had to get around the nativity scene to get to the bronze plaque.

"That's unreal how you can go past something like that and still commit a crime," she said.

But Northminster's churchgoers are no strangers to crime. Crooks earlier targeted the church off Watt Avenue for copper wiring and smashed windows to get to TVs.

Recently a donor gave the church money to ramp up its security, but Darlene says they couldn't decide what type of deterrent they wanted.

"It's not enough money to do everything that needs to be done," she said, "so that's why it's tough to make a decision, what's the best way to spend this money."

The latest theft just may help them finally make a decision. In the meantime, they say they'll pray for whoever believes it's OK to steal from a house of worship.

"This is a church," Edwards said. "This is God's house. Please leave it alone. Don't destroy it please."