By Alec Fernandes
Someone returned a piece of Boston's historic Old North Church with an ominous note, and the church has since had its own problems. Staff believe the "cursed" brick was stolen during a 2023 restoration project, only to mysteriously reappear in March inside an anonymous package from San Jose, California.
The item arrived with a haunting message: "My husband took this from the crypt. We have had a string of bad luck and we want to return the brick." Intrigued and a bit spooked, the staff placed it in a glass case inside the famous crypt, which contains over 1,100 parishioners and several Revolutionary War figures. Since the stone's return there have been a couple of unexplained electrical outages, leading some to wonder if the brick's bad luck is real.
Labeled the Curséd Brick, it remains on display for visitors to see. Lisa Griffin from Atlanta, Georgia, asked the questions on almost everyone's mind: "Why did he take the brick? And what was the bad luck?" The church's website calls it a lesson in karma, stating, "We hope the brick is entertaining to our visitors and acts as a warning to all would-be shoplifters: think twice before you take something from our crypt!"