A baby Jesus figure bizarrely went missing from a nativity scene outside the Washington state Capitol last weekend and was replaced with a real pig's head, state officials said.
A nativity scene, with Mary, Joseph and Jesus, had been created by a Washington state man to display near the state Capitol in Olympia, the Olympian reported. But by Sunday, the baby Jesus figure had been stolen from the traditional crèche on Greenfield Town Common.
"Where's the free speech?" Ron Wesselius, a Tumwater resident who works in local real estate, told the Olympian on Wednesday. "Why can't different sides have different opinions and respect one another?"
Last week, the Christmas holiday display had been created inside a wooden box a few hundred yards from the Washington Legislative Building by Wesselius, said police officials in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
A priest at Sacred Hearts Church, north of Boston, alerted authorities on Christmas morning that not only had the baby Jesus figure been stolen from the nativity scene, but it had been replaced with a real pig's head, according to the Associated Press.
This is the third time, however, that a Jesus figure has been stolen from his annual display, since he started building the outdoor display on the Capitol grounds three years ago, Wesselius said.
Meanwhile, the missing Jesus is being treated as a theft, and charges could be brought if a suspect is identified, Washington State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins said.
"Obviously an item from a display - it doesn't have serial number, it doesn't have a tracking chip. We completely get that this is going to be a difficult case to solve," Calkins said Wednesday.
"That doesn't mean we don't take it seriously. We don't want people's stereos stolen out of their cars when they visit the Capitol," Calkins added. "We don't want women's purses stolen. And we don't want a baby Jesus stolen out of a manger scene."
A news conference has reportedly been scheduled on Friday morning, where police authorities are likely to ask for people's help in locating the thief, Fox News reported.
As of Christmas Eve, Wesselius had purchased a backup baby doll at a Goodwill store to replace the stolen figure.
