ELC plays safe on Baby Jesus statue

An empty manger in the colourful crib set up near the MCP car park in Floriana has raised eyebrows, with people worried that last year's Baby Jesus snatchers may have struck again.

Eyewitnesses insist they saw the statue there this week as they drove or walked past, with one even describing how it was attached to the manger. And then it was gone and many wondered whether it had been stolen.

But a spokesman for the Environmental Landscape Consortium, responsible for the decoration, said Baby Jesus was removed from the crib because it had been placed there by mistake.

"We felt it was more appropriate to place Baby Jesus when we light up the cribs," he said, adding that the other reason was to avoid the temptation of having the crib stolen.

Last Christmas, two of five such cribs located around the island were targeted by thieves.

This year, except for the one on Manwel Dimech Bridge in San Ġwann, the statues would be put in place on Christmas Eve because they were "very vulnerable", the spokesman said.

Last year, eight days before Christmas, a Baby Jesus statue was stolen from the crib next to the Floriana car park. The ELC had replaced it with a notice informing the public that a "kind soul" had taken it, until it was replaced by another donated by the Ġużeppa Debono Home in Mġarr, Gozo.

Then, on December 23, the plastic statue of Our Lady on Manwel Dimech Bridge was broken off its metal base and stolen along with Baby Jesus.