By Sarah Stone

PHOTOS: Darkness falls upon religious shrine after theft

Sep 23, 2014 | 12:13 PM

A religious shrine between Duck Lake and MacDowall has been thrown into darkness.

Sometime between Friday night and Saturday, the solar panels on the Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine were ripped from the roof.

Lionel Sauve with Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine Inc. discovered the missing panels on Saturday as he was driving by the roadside monument of the Catholic Mother of God. He said he was at the site on Friday to open the gates for a wedding reception and the lights were still there.

“I couldn’t believe it, I honestly couldn’t believe it,” Sauve said, describing his reaction to his discovery Saturday morning.

“It just pissed me right off. It’s the second time it’s happened. They stole the batteries in the spring and now they’ve gone and ripped the panels right off the thing [roof].”

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The batteries were taken on the Mother’s Day weekend and were replaced thanks to a donation from the public.

Sauve said he hates thieves have come again.

“That’s beyond belief to do something like that,” he said. “We’d really like to get to know who is behind this.”

Police have been contacted, but he said the panels won’t be replaced because they don’t have the roughly $2,000 it would take to purchase them. Even if they did have the money the thieves would be laughing as they continued to steal, he added.

“At this present moment if we do not catch these guys it will continue, so it’s no use replacing it and that roadside monument means a lot to a lot of people,” he said, adding the lights come on at night and are often used as landmarks for many people and “it’s just a beautiful site and the lights shine on the Virgin Mary.”

Although there’s no concrete evidence, Sauve thinks he knows how the person or persons committed the act.

“I had a water tank there in the back to water the trees and then they took a garbage barrel … and they used that and jumped up and that’s how they were getting it,” he explained.

What’s worse about the theft, according Sauve, is one of the panels that was stolen was broken in the process.

“They damaged beyond. There’s the controls, the part that relays the power to it, it’s still hanging there it’s busted. So it’s just stupidity,” he said.

“This has got to be stopped. This can’t go on,” he said, adding karma will likely come back at those responsible.

He said one person could get them off, but suspects more than one was involved because it would have to be done quickly.

The Shrine was paid for by donations from pilgrims and they’ll feel the loss, he said.

“I even had a little old man there stopped there after Saturday morning and I was showing him and ,you know, he had tears in his eyes and all he could say was ‘Why, why would they bother her? Why would they do this to her?’”

Anyone with information about the stolen solar panels is asked to contact RCMP or Crime Stoppers.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84