Yesterday, California’s Modesto Bee reported that a local church is missing the star player from its nativity scene.
When [pastor Ryan Cortright] arrived at the church, he noticed something missing from the Nativity scene in front of the church: Baby Jesus.
“Mary and Joseph are still there, looking for him, but he’s not there,” Cortright said.
The Bee doesn’t say if police were called, and whether an investigation into the savior-napping ensued. My guess is that, these days, such a case would be low on the cops’ priority list.
It wasn’t always thus, if the following “true story,” plucked from the annals of the Los Angeles Police Department, is to be believed. When the baby Jesus disappeared from a church manger, detective Joe Friday and his sidekick dropped everything and sprang into action, even though the little statue was worth “only a few dollars.” Bigger things than money were at stake!
http://youtu.be/mtfquA7jsGoI unapologetically and un-ironically love the now vaguely goofy earnestness of the long-running Dragnet series — and this episode, “The Big Little Jesus,” has it in spades. It was broadcast for the first time exactly 60 years ago today, and is reputed to be the all-time favorite episode of Jack Webb, the actor who created and produced the show and who ably played Joe Friday. Enjoy!
(Photo via Thomas Hawk)
