Theft case
“Irreplaceable” door handles back 2 days after they were taken
Irreplaceable door handles taken from St. Adalbert’s Church are returned.
“The Lord works in mysterious ways” turned out to be more than an old adage for one Schenectady church and its members.
Less than 48 hours after someone swiped three morethan-a-century old brass or bronze door handles at the main entrance to St. Adalbert’s church, the artifacts were safely returned.
“This is really good news, a blessing,” the Rev. Matthew Frisoni said Wednesday morning after getting the news the handles were back where they belong.
Frisoni, who also serves chaplain for the Schenectady police department, said he’s praying for the person who allegedly made off with three of the six handles.
“It’s very sad something so great for the heritage of the community is now missing because many people sacrificed a great number of nickels and dimes back in the day, and dollars nowadays to build and maintain a church,” he said. “I also pray for some resolution of the issues in that person’s life as someone who is inclined to take the door handles for what
ever reason that there be some peace in the person’s life.”
Frisoni’s joy at getting back the handles stands in stark contrast to the somber mood Monday when he and others at the church learned someone had managed to pry the valuable handles off the Lansing Street church, which for a century has sat on the edge of the Mont Pleasant neighborhood.
The church’s steeple is a landmark near the sprawling General Electric complex and an anchor in a neighborhood built by long-ago employees of the company’s local works.
Parishoner Steve Doolittle said Schenectady Detective Nicholas Contompasis was in the rectory Wednesday morning viewing footage of the incident when he got a call from T.A. Predel, a salvage yard down the road, that they might have the door handles at the business.
“The officer that was here said ‘I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I’m going to go down and take a look at it’ and then within 10 minutes he was
here with the door handles,” added Doolittle, who is a contractor and does work for St. Adalbert.
He recalled that after the handles went missing that he had a secretary reach out to Predel about the stolen relics.
On Wednesday, an employee who identified himself as the manager of Predel’s, declined comment.
The theft prompted parishioner Doolittle to Tuesday morning post three handwritten signs on white paper where the
handles used to be, with a simple plea to “Please return our handles — over 100 years old.”
He explained that the culprit removed the screws from one of the two handles on the middle door “but it was fastened properly to the door, so he couldn’t get it off, so he left it.”
“It took him about 10 minutes to do everything,” he said adding that police have an idea of who they are looking for.
“Those particular handles are irreplaceable, they’re at least 100 years old, the craftsmanship of the handle itself, I believe the molds on the back plate of the handle are probably gone,” he said.
“I was relieved, I was delighted — divine intervention,” said Doolitte.
The thief apparently removed the handles, which are so old church officials have no record of whether they are made of brass or bronze, from the outside and did not enter the church, which was built in 1910.
The handles were back in the hands of church officials, and Doolittle reinstalled them Wednesday afternoon.
Police were Wednesday afternoon continuing to investigate the theft.