The brass eagle lectern, which was discovered stolen from the St. Peter's Anglican Church in Falmouth, Trelawny, yesterday morning. - CONTRIBUTED
WESTERN BUREAU:
A REWARD of $10,000 is being offered to any member of the public, who can provide information for the recovery of the brass Eagle lectern that was stolen from St. Peter's Anglican Church in Falmouth, Trelawny on the weekend.
"We believe that if we put up a reward, we might be able to get some information from persons," said Mrs. Beryl McLean, a member of the church family said.
Mrs. McLean and her church sister, Mrs. Florence Logan, are the ones offering the reward money.
ANTIQUE
The antique lectern, which dates back to 1796, was discovered missing from the church on Saturday morning. The church's rector, Fr. Michael Brown, thinks that the stolen item could be end up on the export market and has alerted the Department of Customs to that possibility.
In the meantime, the theft of the lectern highlights a disturbing trend where historically significant sites have been raided by robbers.
"This is a nasty business, these thieves don't know what they have, the fact that it is made of brass, makes it more valuable than if it were made of steel or iron, but it could be worth anywhere between $50,000-$100,000," George Lechler, past president of the historical society, and the board of trustees of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT), said.
"Recently, a museum in Lucea was robbed, the Karl Jarrett house was broken into as well; some fellows even tried to come and sell me things such as Russian teapot (from the Karl Jarrett house), I had never seen one before. At the time, I didn't even know the items had been stolen, but a few weeks later, the items were recovered by the police from a man walking down Duke Street with the paintings under his arm. The best thing to do when things are stolen is to let the public know about it to prevent its sale."
