Troublemakers Rob Xmas Cradle

WAITSBURG -- It seems like a grinch, or perhaps a group of young grinches, was bent on stealing the spirit of Christmas last week.

Police and citizens' reports indicate they stole outdoor Christmas lights, decorations and even absconded with a plastic likeness of Baby Jesus.

The spate of vandalism and theft throughout the city started last Tuesday and continued through the weekend.

Some called it the worst the town has seen in years.

In all, half a dozen reports of stolen or damaged Christmas items were called into the Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office, while four more informal reports of such incidents were gathered by the Times.

"It's been a long time since we've had this stuff going on," said Brian Bush, local Walla Walla County Sheriff's Deputy who has lived in Waitsburg for almost a decade and a half and doesn't recall a similar spate since he arrived here.

The rampage, blamed by some eye witnesses on teenage troublemakers, included the removal and destruction of Christmas lights, Christmas decorations and the Nativity scene in front of the Presbyterian Church on Main Street.

The church's Pastor Bret Moser said just before the weekend someone took the Baby Jesus from the nativity scene and threw the infant under a stone bench outside the church where the clergyman found it.

But that was only the beginning of the Biblical figure's suffering.

Moser placed the Baby Jesus back in its manger, but the next night, the grinch decided to take the icon and leave a damaged crib in his or her wake.

Moser said he suspects the same group of kids -- none of whom he was able to identify before they ran off -- who twice took his Christmas lights from the front of his home next to the church and threw them in the street. This act of vandalism was reported by other homeowners in town last week.

Moser said the vandalism saddens him because his own children were upset by the act, but also because some homeowners, particularly the elderly, may not be able to replace their lights or decorations.

Few pockets of Waitsburg were spared the shenanigans, which were reported on Second, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh and Main streets, and both sides of Coppei.

"They're hurting people," Moser said. "I hope someday they'll understand what they've done and maybe they will grow from it."

Ironically, it was a group of kids of a different generation who made sure the front lawn of the Presbyterian Church had a Nativity scene to display.

Former Sunday School teacher Lynna Larsen recalled how some two decades ago kids at the Presbyterian Church collected pennies and nickels for a special project that eventually became the purchase of the Nativity scene, which included Joseph, Mary, their infant and the cradle.

"That's so disgusting," said Larsen, whose husband Ed took the manger home in the hopes of repairing it.

She said the perpetrators may think their destructive acts amount to fun, but "it's very serious."

Moser said some members of his congregation are upset because of the long history of the Nativity scene. Larsen agreed, saying the figures have been used each by the church community "over and over and over."

Moser, whose own residence was also visited by the grinches, said he and his family were in the living room when someone pulled down a string of candy cane lights, after which he saw a group of four teens run off.

The other homeowners hit by the vandals reported similar incidents after the fact, but still in the early evening.

Offenders are hard to identify unless law enforcement officers catch them in the act or someone comes forward to report them, say, their friends or schoolmates, to whom they might eventually brag about their mischief, Bush said.

Moser took the Nativity scene incident in stride, saying that despite its symbolism, the figure was, after all, a simple plastic shape whose loss shouldn't dampen local holiday spirits.

At a time when an entire Christian church is being bulldozed in Egypt, one needs to keep Waitsburg's spate of vandalism, however regrettable, in perspective, he suggested.

The theft of the Baby Jesus figure got some notoriety in the area, Moser noted, because the Walla Walla Union Bulletin printed a remark a Sheriff's deputy made on his incident report.

"An attempt to locate Baby Jesus was put out, but at this point God only knows where he could be found," the newspaper quoted the report as saying.

That, in turn, prompted Moser to inject his own humor into the otherwise unfortunate affair.

"As Christians, we understand that he may be missing at the moment, but we all know He will come again," he said. For readers with information about the incidents, please call the Sheriff's Office at 509-527-3265.