Religion News Blog is a non-profit service providing academics, religion professionals and other researchers with religion & cult news

Religion news articles about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues

Navigation:

Search

Stolen Mormon items found at SLC shop

The Salt Lake Tribune, USA
Apr. 15, 2006
Justin Hill
www.sltrib.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Saturday April 15, 2006

Museum heist: Due to the recovery, police say they have four suspects

Investigators looking for 12 stolen early editions of Mormon scripture from the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum received a lead in the case Thursday.

At a downtown Salt Lake City antique shop, investigators recovered items stolen from the same museum about 2 1/2 weeks ago, said Lt. Tony Garcia of the Utah State Bureau of Investigation. Investigators now have four suspects: the two people who sold the items to the store and two others arrested after a 1993 heist at the museum.

Edith Menna, director of the museum and second vice president of The International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, was relieved the items – a coin and three other medals – were found.

“This is just absolutely tremendous,” she said.

Staff of the Pioneer Memorial Museum, 300 N. Main St. in Salt Lake City, were devising a new exhibit and had put out several medals in a closed area to choose for the exhibit.

“We just left it for a few minutes,” Menna said. “That’s all it took.”

Faced with many, many medals, the thief selected only seven award medals and ribbons and a coin given to Brigham Young with his name on it.

“He knew what he was taking,” Menna said.

Then, on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, thieves stole 11 rare copies of the Book of Mormon and one copy of the Doctrine and Covenants, as well as a Tibetan printing block. One stolen copy was an 1852 edition printed in Italian and presented to LDS President John Taylor from Lorenzo Snow, who later became an LDS leader.

The burglars broke a window and cut a window screen on the north side of the museum in the spot most out of view from detection, said Garcia.