A priceless religious relic, said to be a fragment from Jesus' crucifixion cross, has been stolen from a Catholic Church in San Francisco.
Known as a piece of the 'True Cross,' the ancient item is thought to be from at least 350 AD and some members of the church believe it dates further back than that.
As can be expected, members of the church are devastated by the theft which occurred last Thursday when someone broke into the display case containing the relic.
It appears that the item was the only antiquity that the robbers sought, since they did not take a 300-year-old wax papal seal that was also inside the case.
Unfortunately, the church has no security cameras and there were no witnesses to the crime, so authorities are left with few clues as to who may have committed the dastardly deed.
As such, officials at the church are pleading with the thief to return the relic and promise that there will be 'no questions asked' if the item suddenly reappears.
While one would hope that such an entreaty might sway the crook to have a change of heart, we suspect that, for anyone who would be brazen enough to pull off such a crime, it will probably fall on deaf ears.
Oddly enough, the theft is the second relic to be stolen this summer as a venerated cloth containing the blood of Pope John Paul II was taken from a German church in early June.
Although the two events are almost certainly unrelated, the dual capers are an unsettling indication of how dark our world seems to be turning.
Source: ABC News