White River St George’s Anglican Church bell stolen and destroyed
The suspects were attempting to sell a church bell at one of White River's scrapyards, after they had cut it into pieces.
The historic bell at St George’s Anglican Church, which had rung for over 70 years, was stolen and destroyed on Saturday November 4.
The incident occurred on Saturday night, and the bell was discovered to be missing on Sunday morning as the church was about to call the devout to assembly.
On Monday morning, two men were caught in the act of trying to sell it.
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According to the owner of Atlantic Scrap Metal Rocky Drift, Ross Harries, he had come to learn about the theft on a WhatsApp group.
When he saw the two men arrive with at least 20 pieces of cut-up brass, he immediately put two and two together and alerted authorities. A local security company as well as the White River police arrived and the arrest was made. At the time of publishing, they had not yet appeared in court and remained in custody.
The bell held significant value to the church members over the years, and while it can be replaced with a costly exercise, 70 years of history has been lost.
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Church secretary Renate Bowers deemed the discovery of the cut-up bell as heartbreaking. “We were shocked to find that it had been stolen when on Sunday morning we were about to ring it. Our security company alerted all scrapyards around the area to be on the lookout,” Bowers said.
“We cannot judge them, but we believe that God will deal with them, because we did not see them, but He saw them. For now, we are letting the law take its course and trusting in the Lord that everything will go well,” said Bowers.
