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November 13, 2007

Lead raiders attack the Abbey

The last two days have been difficult. On Sunday night/Monday morning, one of our gates was forced and a small truck or van driven into the Abbey grounds. Then apparently two men scaled the walls of one of the ambulatory chapels and stripped about thirty square metres of lead from one of the large "gulleys" which is both roof and drain for the main roof.

So Monday was spent with the police and the scenes of crime people, the insurers and others. To cap it all a man was then seen to force open a collection box and remove the money. He knew he had been seen to do it, but, bold as brass, went to another and forced that as well. More police.

Unbelievably the lead raiders returned on Monday night/Tuesday morning and removed another huge section of lead. The annoying thing is that we had said to the police that we believed they would come back now that they had "recce'd" the roofs and established how they would do it and what they needed for the rest.....

And in the midst of dealing with a fresh police visitation, the collection robber from Monday walks into the Abbey - and makes another attempt!

As I said, it has been a trying week - and its only Tuesday.....

Posted by The Gray Monk at November 13, 2007 10:54 PM

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Comments

My prayers are with you. Please stay safe.

Posted by: vw bug at November 15, 2007 09:59 PM

I've enjoyed reading your blog, sorry to hear about the theft.
With the value of metals rising these incidents are increasing even here in the South Eastern NC.
Oddly enough that's almost like work, (lugging all that lead) why not just get a job?

Posted by: shreck at November 18, 2007 04:52 PM