Thieves steal historic 800-pound church bell in stages: 'Tell the ding dong to bring the bell back'

A pack of thieves were caught on camera absconding with a prized church bell last week in St. Louis' historic Soulard neighborhood. Although the prize was weighted with historical significance, it appears it was the bronze bell's incredible mass that made the theft so onerous as to require multiple trips.

A parishioner writing on behalf of Rev. Bruce Forman, the pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Parish, indicated in a Meta post that the bell was "brazenly stolen by three men using two trucks. They started at 11:52 p.m. on Halloween and finished at 1:06 a.m. on November 1 according to our security camera."

"This was a professional heist," wrote the parishioner.

Reverend Bruce Forman told KMOV-TV that the bell had been knocked down from its yoke and brackets on Monday. The following evening, the thieves returned to lug their trophy away.

"I think it was so heavy that [the thieves] probably thought they were going to steal it the first time when they knocked it off the structure but found out it was so heavy, so they came back a night later," said Rev. Forman.

The pastor told KSDK-TV it appears as though the thieves disabled a nearby light so that they could ultimately "work under cover of dark."

Forman and his parishioners initially figured the bell for cast iron, meaning the thieves would be looking at less than $200 in scrap for all their efforts. However, an appraiser revealed to the pastor that the bell was made of bronze and worth approximately $30,000.

"That whole assembly that was taken would equate to what I quoted — about $25,000," said Don Hartmann of the Verdin Company, a bronze bell manufacturer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. "If we were to try to make that exact bell, it would be closer to $30,000 for them to decorate the bell and add all the designs."

"These thefts, unfortunately, are also not all that uncommon. Metal can be worth a lot of money, like the bronze bell," Hartmann told KFVS-TV.

About 800 pounds of bronze scrap could fetch around $1,780.

Parishioner Todd Long told KMOV, "It's not doing them no good. Nobody's going to be able to sell that thing."

Rev. Forman said, "It's not so much the amount of the value of the bell." Rather, "it's the fact that it's symbolic of the many years this church has been serving."

According to the city, Saints Peter and Paul was originally a German parish founded in 1849. A brick structure was later built on the site, only to be replaced in 1875 by the Gothic church that stands today, designed by Granz Georg Hempler. The bell is said to date back to the original building.

"You just can't replace something like that," said Rev. Forman.

Long told KFVS, "Tell the ding dong to bring the bell back!"

Earlier this year, a 2,000-pound church bell was stolen from Turner Cemetery in Pittsburgh. The thieves are believed to have taken it to a scrap yard, only to discover they had made the news. It was found a day after it went missing, abandoned in a secluded neighborhood, reported KDKA-TV.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!