It’s the Nativity scene of the crime.
A parishioner of a Brooklyn church is praying that whoever stole the Baby Jesus from a $1,700 Nativity scene dedicated to his late parents will have the heart to return the porcelain figurine.
Sanitation worker Lou Pepe, 53, said it vanished Jan. 3 from the outdoor display he had bought for the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary-St. Stephen Catholic Church, at Summit and Hicks streets in Carroll Gardens.
The Mary and Joseph figurines were bolted down. The infant child was not.
Pepe said he noticed it missing while driving to work at about 4 a.m. and looking at the plaque bearing the names of Vincent and Vincenza Pepe.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the theft of the $150 Christ.
“I am praying to St. Anthony of lost things and missing people that the Baby Jesus is returned by [today], before we take the display down,” Pepe said. “I am very upset. We want to reunite the family.”
That same day, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church in Forest Hills, Queens, said a ceramic Baby Jesus — known as the Infant of Prague and covered in fake jewels — was snatched and later found across the street shattered and minus the gems.