Sacramento County family has Virgin Mary statue stolen from home
KCRA, MICHELLE THACH, CNN
By Andres Valle
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SACRAMENTO COUNTY, California (KCRA) — A group of thieves stole a statue of the Virgin Mary from the front yard of a Sacramento County home.
It happened early Saturday morning in the newly developed community of Sycamore Grove.
“There’s no price that we can put on it. It’s sacred. It’s very important to us, our family, and our beliefs. So we can’t really put a price tag on it,” said Michelle Thach, the owner of the home where the statue was stolen.
Thach and her neighbors shared surveillance video of the incident with KCRA 3.
The video shows two people walking up to Thach’s home around 1 a.m. Saturday.
Moments later, a white pickup truck hauling a trailer drives up right behind them.
Thach’s home surveillance camera then captures the truck reversing onto their lawn when three people remove the statue and place it on the bed of the trailer before driving away.
“It felt like it was premeditated. We felt like they had a plan because they had a whole trailer. They pulled up with three men, and they had like a whole plan, and they just pulled out,” Thach said.
Our news team noticed tire imprints on Thach’s front yard where the statue once stood. She said the statue cost them thousands of dollars.
“The statues aren’t cheap. And, you know, for someone to take it, they know how much it would cost,” Thach said.
The neighborhood watch is now looking into installing license plate reading cameras in their community to help alert authorities of any crimes that might happen in the neighborhood.
“The cameras do show how many times a vehicle has been in the neighborhood in the last 30 days. So typically, if a vehicle’s only been there once in the last 30 days, that’s the person who committed the crime,” said Rochelle Tilson, the neighborhood watch captain.
For now, Thach has no plans to replace the statue and hopes it gets returned.
“We are looking on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and eBay to see if it appears anywhere. I hope they don’t keep it for themselves,” Thach said.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the case. They are asking the public to reach out to them for any information they may have.
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