Featured Image Credit: NYPD
Topics: US News
Joe Harker
A church in Brooklyn has suffered a major loss after thieves broke in and stole a solid gold tabernacle worth $2 million.
According to the Daily Mail, at some point between Thursday night and Saturday, an unknown number of thieves broke into St Augustine's Roman Catholic Church on 6th Avenue, Brooklyn, New York and stole the tabernacle.
They cut a hole into the tabernacle's cover to gain access to the $2 million relic and steal it, though how they managed to carry the heavy object out and make off with it is anyone's guess.
The base of the cover was not cut through by the thieves, meaning they would have had to lift out the solid gold object and carry it out of the church.
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The thieves also decapitated a sculpture of an angel that was in the church. The head is now missing with no clue as to its whereabouts.
For those of you wondering what a tabernacle is, it's a locked boxed that is fixed in place in a church which contains bread and wine considered to have been changed into the body and blood of Christ.
Father Frank Tumino, pastor of St Augustine's church, said the thieves appeared to be 'really well prepared' as they were able to cut through the steel cabinet covering the tabernacle and make off with the solid gold relic.
He said: "We're still working with the police, there are loads of cameras nowadays, there's cameras everywhere.
"As a human being I'd want to say you've taken away something that is so beautiful, that has given people beauty in the midst of the ugliness of their lives at times.
"We'll get through this, they've been through a lot in almost 130 years of history. So with God's help, if anything it can make us stronger."
Father Tumino also confirmed that the thieves stole security recordings as part of their heist, though he played down suggestions that the robbery might be an inside job as lots of people are able to come into the church.
The public nature of the building and the church's own website mean that the presence of the solid gold tabernacle is no secret.
He also suggested that the thieves likely had a lot of time inside the church to gain access to the tabernacle and steal it, as well as find the security recordings for the cameras and take them from a safe as part of their robbery.
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