Churches, synagogues going high tech to foil holiday-display thieves

In addition to tidings of peace and joy, St. Ambrose Church in Old Bridge has another message for the community this season: Don't even think about stealing the parish's new nativity scene. Not only are Mary and Joseph secured to the manger with steel cords, but the Baby Jesus also will be bolted to his crib and equipped with a high-tech GPS device to track anyone who might snatch him.

"GPS. We call it God's Positioning System," the Rev. Bob Gorman, St. Ambrose's pastor, said.

The Roman Catholic church is one of about 100 churches and synagogues around the country using global positioning system devices to protect their holiday nativity scenes and menorahs from a growing number of brazen thieves, pranksters and vandals. The GPS units usually are hidden inside hollow nativity scene figures or menorah bases. If the unit is moved, church officials are immediately notified via cell phone or e-mail. Then they can use the GPS satellite system to track the stolen item's movements on a map via the internet.

BrickHouse Security, a New York firm, is offering free GPS units and security cameras to religious institutions nationwide during the holiday season. The idea began two years ago when a Florida church contacted the security company to ask for help after its nativity scene was stolen, said Todd Morris, the company's chief executive officer.

The company experimented with hiding one of its GPS units inside the nativity scene figures. The small devices, which are the size of a deck of cards, usually are used by the firm's corporate and law enforcement clients to secretly track bags of money, briefcases, truck shipments and other valuables.

Intervention from above

When baby Jesus disappeared last year from a Nativity scene on the lawn of the Wellington, Fla., community center, village officials didn't follow a star to locate him. A Global Positioning System device mounted inside the life-size ceramic figurine led sheriff's deputies to a nearby apartment, where it was found face-down on the carpet. An 18-year-old woman was arrested in the theft. Giving up on old-fashioned padlocks and trust, a number of churches, synagogues, governments and ordinary citizens are turning to technology to protect holiday displays from pranks or prejudice.

About 70 churches and synagogues eager to avoid the December police blotter jumped at a security company's offer of free use of GPS units and hidden cameras this month to guard their mangers and menorahs. Others, like the Herrera family of North Richland Hills, Texas, took matters into their own hands. Upset after their teeter-totter was stolen, the family trained surveillance cameras on their yard and was surprised when footage showed a teenage girl stealing a baby Jesus worth almost $500. Police have obtained the tape. "They took the family Jesus," said Gloria Herrera, 48, a Catholic. "How can anybody do that?"

For two consecutive years, thieves made off with the baby Jesus figurine in Wellington, a well-off village of 60,000 in Palm Beach County, Fla. The ceramic original, donated by a local merchant, was made in Italy and worth about $1,800, said John Bonde, Wellington's director of operations. So last year, officials took a GPS unit normally used to track the application of mosquito spray and implanted it in the latest replacement figurine. After that one disappeared, sheriff's deputies quickly tracked it down. Sensing opportunity in that kind of success story, New York-based BrickHouse Security is offering up to 200 non-profit religious institutions a free month's use of security cameras and Lightning GPS products it distributes.

Chief Executive Officer Todd Morris said the idea was born after a few churches asked about one-month rentals instead of longer contracts that are the norm. The first 20 or so applications came from synagogues, he said. Rabbi Yochonon Goldman of Lubavitch of Center City, a Philadelphia-area branch of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, signed up even though his previous biggest scare involved the wind knocking down a menorah. "People are very security conscious, and this is simply a precaution," said Goldman, who will put a GPS unit on one menorah and a camera on another. "It's sad … but it's the reality we're faced with."

As members of a minority religion, Jews are probably hit harder when their religious symbols are vandalized, said Deborah Lauter, national civil rights director for the Anti-Defamation League. "If baby Jesus is removed, it tends to be seen as a prank," Lauter said. "Vandalism or theft of a menorah is just more sensitive. You feel like you're really being targeted for your religion." The ADL identified 699 incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism in 2007, consistent with recent years.

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