Status: True
Virginia Voiers, a 70-year-old grandmother, has been charged with
stealing baby Jesus from a nativity scene in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
"It was a lark, it wasn't any serious stealing,'' Voiers told the Lovely County Citizen newspaper of Eureka Springs. "My granddaughter commented that no one had taken the baby Jesus this year and said, 'Grandma?' I said, 'Oh, what the heck.''' Usually, the baby Jesus is returned by the thief. Voiers said her Saturday caper was the first time she'd taken anything from the nativity. "I didn't know we had a tattletale downtown,'' said Voiers, who is also a Sunday school teacher at a Methodist church.
She got caught because a security camera had been installed to catch pranksters in the act. In other words, the entire theft was filmed. I'd love to see that video.
Comments
But it would be interesting to see the video!
(Note to the sensitive: I'm mostly joking)
I'd sure be complaining if my tax dollars were paying for a security camera to protect a city-owned religious display.
Apparently a sorority owns it and the security camera.
I know Virginia and she is a good hearted fun woman who would never "steal". Seems she WAS caught "taking" it... more like she was "BORROWING" it.... Jimmy Kimmel Live was downtown filming it live tonight. We are a nice fun li'l Arkansas town and we know how to have more fun than anyone else on earth. This is the best "accidental" advertising for tourism than our million dollar ad agency could/would EVER do.
Y'all come see us sometime and you'll see what I mean. Just don't steal Jesus... LOL!!
"I know Virginia and she is a good hearted fun woman who would never "steal". Seems she WAS caught "taking" it... more like she was "BORROWING" it...."
Well, that may have been her intent. Unfortunately, the law says that taking something that doesn't belong to you is THEFT. If the church thinks that she was just having fun, why didn't they just tell that to the local cops? If the victim didn't want to press charges, they probably would have been dropped, especially in a small town.
This is an "old woman gone temporarily wacked"...(I doubt she'd even USE that as an excuse; she's pretty graceful and humble about accepting her punnishment) not a meth manufacturer looking to find mercy in the court, like we have so much of in this country! This is life's classic example of taking your lemons and making lemonade. That is not illegal...yet...LOL!
"This is an "old woman gone temporarily wacked"...(I doubt she'd even USE that as an excuse; she's pretty graceful and humble about accepting her punnishment) not a meth manufacturer looking to find mercy in the court, like we have so much of in this country!"
While this is by no means the Crime of the Century or anything, the fact remains that she did steal something. The comparisin to meth manufacturers is irrelevant. If you owned a store and the same old lady stole something from your shelves, would you be willing to just let her go (assuming you didn't know her personally, of course) just because her theft wasn't comparable to meth making?
Or look at it this way: someone robs a bank. Should we say, "Well, it wasn't murder so let's just let them go"? There's ALWAYS something worse to compare things to.
No, I don't think the old lady needs to go to jail but I also think you're looking for ways to excuse what she did because you happen to know her. If the theft was committed by some teenage boys, would you be quite so lenient?
Three of the cops that arrested her were LAUGHING, because they knew about this tradition. before, the baby Jesus has shown up in oklahoma and in multiple other places.
2) the manger scene is not set up by the city itself, just so everyone knows.
it may be offensive to some, but anyone in small town alabama has no problem with it- it's called lovely county for a reason.
somehow, i doubt the validity of anything you say since... we're talking about Arkansas and not Alabama which is a little further than just a few miles down the road.
on that note, the fact that the nativity scene was owned by sorority intrigues me. you would think that a sorority would understand the concept of a prank. after all, stealing the baby jesus seems to be a yearly thing in this town.
and while you cant compare it to dealing meth. you also cant counter that statement by comparing it to stealing something from a bank or grocery sore either. people who steal from banks and grocery stores actually get something they want; money, food, condoms... someone who steals a baby jesus from a nativity scene, especially when its an old lady is going to have no use for that item. what the hell are you going to do with a baby jesus anyway? buy meth, i think...