The infamous manger snatchers struck again this Christmas even venturing out to Gozo.
The baby Jesus statue forming part of a crib installation in Gozo and another one by the roundabout at the bottom of Ġlormu Avenue in Floriana were stolen in the past days.
The Environmental Landscape Consortium, which takes care of roundabout decorations, noticed the missing statue in Għajnsielem on Christmas Eve while the one in Floriana went missing on Boxing Day.
Another decorative statue – a large €1,000 metal bird – disappeared from a roundabout next to a petrol station in Attard on Tuesday.
ELC general manager Ronald Cuschieri said he was disgusted by the thefts.
He was of two minds on whether to highlight the missing items because he did not want to “give ideas to other people who would follow suit”.
Whoever took the statues either wanted to steal the limelight or was “mentally unstable”, he said angrily, pointing out that the consortium would not give in and would continue embellishing the roundabouts with cribs.
“We will not concede defeat,” Dr Cuschieri said, adding that the first theft had taken place in 2008.
In fact, eight days before Christmas in 2008, a baby Jesus statue was stolen from the same installation next to the Floriana car park. The ELC had replaced it with a notice informing the public that a “kind soul” had taken it. Eventually, it was replaced by another donated by the Ġużeppa Debono Home in Mġarr, Gozo.
However, on December 23, the plastic statue of Our Lady on the Regional Road was forced off its metal base and stolen along with baby Jesus. The baby Jesus statue there went missing on three consecutive Christmases.
Dr Cuschieri said that although high-quality plaster statues had been used in 2008, these were replaced by less expensive ones.
Although the consortium had expected such thefts, Dr Cuschieri questioned the “pleasure” people took in stealing the statues, year after year.
Last year, he added, two statues – one of St Mary and the other of St Joseph – were found decapitated.
“We want people to enjoy these cribs and decorations. If people don’t like them, they should look elsewhere when passing by instead of causing such distress,” he said.
The thefts have been reported to the police.