BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Christmas hasn't arrived for the Eichnebergers until the family Nativity has gone up out front of their Beaverton home. Bonnie Eichenberger says it gives her "a warm feeling inside."
"The neighbors love it, too, and it just reminds us of what Christmas is all about," she added.
A Nativity scene depicts the biblical story of Jesus Christ's birth to the Virgin Mary, in a Bethlehem manger, along with witnesses to the miracle.
On Tuesday, someone stole Jesus.
Eichenberger said she was shocked to find her manger empty - and called to report someone had stolen Jesus Christ.
"I asked the police officer if he could put out an A-P-B for baby Jesus," chuckled Eichenberger, referring to a crisis-emergency response from police. “I knew it would be hard to find him but it just really upset me that somebody would do that."
Why would someone steal baby Jesus, Bonnie asked her husband Wednesday.
But thieves were not done. The Eichenbergers awoke Thursday to find their Nativity further desecrated.
"I went outside, and Joseph and Mary were gone, too!" Bonnie said.
All that was left was a cresche her husbund had built to shelter the Christmas statuettes.
Eichenberger spent about $200 some four years ago on the Nativity set. It came from Costco. But it signified something more than money, she said.
"There is an important message there. I wonder if someone stole it because they don't agree with that message," she said, but then acknowledged that for all she knew, "maybe they just wanted to put it up in their own yard."
As for the empty creshe, Eichenberger said her husband wanted to take it down, but she had a different idea.
Bonnie wants to leave the cresche on her lawn, empty but for a sign asking "Why."
"I want to know why anyone would do that."
