For the faithful entering Christ Our Savior Catholic Parish in Santa Ana, the statue of Saint John the Baptist placing holy water on the head of Jesus represented a core tenant of Christianity.
But, police say, thieves who arrived at the church under the cover of darkness last month likely saw the artwork as representing something more worldly: quick cash.
Police say two men cut through a chain link fence at the church property around 2 a.m. on Aug. 30 and took an electric saw to the statue. In surveillance video, the men are seen slicing the depiction of Jesus at the ankles and carting it away. Only the feet and the stone base of the $50,000 installation were left behind.
Saint John the Baptist remains. But many worry the church and other locations across the region that display bronze artwork will continue to be targeted.
“It feels like a violation,” said Tustin Mayor Austin Lumbard, whose city has also been the setting for bronze thefts in recent months.
Metal theft has been an intractable problem in Southern California for years, with bandits pulling out copper wire in streetlights — plunging neighborhoods into darkness — and from rail lines, pilfering pipes from construction sites and vacant buildings, and sawing catalytic converters off cars for scrap.
The 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles epitomizes the problem with rampant metal theft. Famously hailed as a “ribbon of light,” the bridge has been dark for more than a year after thieves ripped off more than seven miles of copper wire that helped illuminate its arches. The metal likely netted the thieves upward of $11,000, but officials say it will cost taxpayers millions to restore the lights.
Now, as the price of copper continues to rise, thieves are turning their attention to bronze statues and commemorative plaques.
“I call this an emergent crime,” said Ben Stickle, a criminal justice professor at Middle Tennessee State University, who has studied metal theft. “It doesn’t mean it’s never happened before. It just means it’s suddenly popular.”
The reason is the high value of copper, he said. The national average price of copper at recycling centers is from $3 to $4.50 per pound. On the commodity market, it’s being sold for more than $6 a pound.
“The value of copper has just gone up and up and up, and it’s probably at the highest its ever been,” Stickle said. “So that makes it more attractive for thieves to steal, and they do it more often.”
Statues and plaques made of bronze, which is typically about 88% copper, have become an easy target for metal plunderers.
Last September, a suspect stripped a bronze marker from a beachside memorial for lifeguard pioneer Vincent G. Moorhouse, who is credited with modernizing the local lifeguard service, in Huntington Beach. The same individual also made off with four bronze placards from the benches at nearby Patriot Point, police said.
In January, another Orange County city was hit. This time, the target was bronze plaques meant to honor the military at Veterans Sports Park in Tustin.
The park, on the former grounds of Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, has a large monument to veterans — a circular design with a massive star at the center and an eagle jutting into the sky. The monument is emblazoned with words meant to represent the service members’ commitment: respect, courage, sacrifice, freedom and honor. Each of the military branches has its own circular plate.
Overnight on Jan. 20, someone stripped off the plaques for the Army, Navy and Coast Guard, along with a marker for the park dedication and a time capsule.
That same night, roughly seven miles away, several bronze plaques were stripped from a brick wall welcoming visitors to the historic district of Old Towne Orange.
The theft prompted the city’s Police Department to warn residents that bronze pilfering was a “growing concern” across Southern California and urge community members to report suspicious activity.
Detectives combed through video surveillance footage and identified a suspect, Sean Paul Green, whom prosecutors allege was also responsible for the bronze thefts in Tustin and other cities, including Long Beach and Huntington Beach.
Green pleaded guilty in April to 10 counts of grand theft and 10 counts of vandalism, all felonies, and was sentenced to one year in jail, according to Orange County Superior Court records.
Lumbard said the plaques had already been recycled by the time authorities arrested Green. The markers had been recycled for a few thousand dollars, but it cost the city $40,000 to replace them, he said.
For a city that’s espoused much pride in its military history, the nature of the theft was as much an insult as it was an injury.
“We have a special monument for our veterans and Tustin’s military community, and to have somebody come in and disrespect that … it’s just sad,” Lumbard said. “It’s the times we live in. We have to have heightened security around all of our nice things.”
In response, Tustin increased patrols around the park and installed cameras and new lighting in an effort to deter criminal activity.
In Paramount, even enhanced lighting and cameras weren’t enough to keep thieves away from the “Battlefield Cross and Soldier” art piece outside the city’s civic center.
In May 2025, just before Memorial Day, someone sawed off a portion of the statue — a rifle stuck into the ground with a helmet on top — a traditional military symbol known as a Soldier’s Cross.
Last month, thieves returned once again and made off with what was left of the statue, removing the bronze soldier from the base of the installation.
The theft at the Santa Ana church also wasn’t the first time the location had been hit.
In April, two men damaged wood fence panels to gain access to the property and made off with portions of another bronze statue, according to police.
Authorities are reviewing surveillance video in an effort to identify the suspects — and potentially get the sculpture of Jesus back.
The situation shocked community members, with comments of “Is nothing sacred?!” and “Talk about a one way ticket to hell” on the Santa Ana Police Department’s social media posts announcing the theft.
But Stickle said he wasn’t surprised that a religious institution would be targeted.
Although some might consider it taboo to steal from a church, he said, when the price of a good rises high enough, people are more likely to take risks or ignore their own moral compass.
“Some just flat out don’t care,” he said.
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