WILLIAMSBURG — A drunken vandal high-fived then kissed a ceramic statue of Jesus outside a neighborhood church, shattering the statue's base, according to police and a video of the incident.
The now-cracked 100-year-old Jesus was donated to Saints Peter and Paul church as a replacement for another statue stolen from the rectory in 2012.
And it too went missing briefly back in May from the property at 71 S. Third St. when a trio of vandals took it. It was later found in a nearby garbage can.
In the most recent incident, just before 5 a.m. Sunday morning, two men and a woman approached the white statue outside of the church rectory on South Third Street, according to police.
A video released by police on Tuesday showed the visibly intoxicated trio walking along South Third Street when they stop to admire the Jesus statue in front of Saints Peter and Paul rectory.
One of the men, last seen wearing a purple shirt and black jeans, high-fived the statue, then reached over the rectory fence giving the Jesus a hug and a kiss, causing it to crack, the video shows.
As the statue disconnects from its base, the three run off down the street.
Because the Jesus is on church grounds it might be considered a hate crime, according to police.
"When you're drunk you have no common sense," said Waleska, a worker at the church who declined to give her full name.
Waleska pointed out the string of attacks on the rectory's statue with disappointment. In May, its security camera captured the trio running off with the Jesus statue, though no one has been arrested for that incident.
The fact that this is the second time in a matter of months showed a frustrating "lack of respect," she said, declining to comment further while the police investigation was going on.
In February, at a nearby Polish church on Metropolitan Avenue, a vandal smashed a statue of a guardian angel.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.
