A man tried to steal the offering block from a chapel in Wintelre on Saturday evening. The chapel is by the local church, opposite a restaurant. A woman was eating in the restaurant when she saw a man behaving rather suspiciously across the street. She went to him. Anonymous* she tells her story: “People light a candle there for someone else, and he would take the money away. I was able to hit him.”
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An offering block is a box or box, usually made of heavy forged metal, in which visitors to the chapel can place an ‘offering’ when they light a candle, for example.
The woman sees how a couple is lingering near the chapel. “It has been restless here in the village all week. Men have been seen photographing in the street early in the morning. Up here, a trailer has been removed and an electric bicycle has been stolen. You are therefore more alert.”
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“He wanted to run away but I said, ‘I didn’t think so, you’re staying here,’ so I stopped him.”
She doesn’t trust it and steps out. “I just can’t stand it, I think something like this should be stopped.” She waits for one of the two to enter the chapel. Then she springs into action.
“I look in and see how he tries to tear the sacrificial block from the wall with his foot and an iron bar. He wanted to run away but I said, ‘I didn’t think so, you stay here’, so I stopped him.”
The man does not want to be touched, he says in English, but the woman knows how to keep him with her. “It was just a little man.” At that moment, the woman’s husband comes out to offer help. He calls the police. Still, the man manages to escape and runs off. Her husband goes after him, but he disappears further into the corn.
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“Some say, well it’s just one guy. But who knows, there may be a whole gang behind it.”
With the help of the police, a citizen network report and a police helicopter, the man was eventually arrested and thanks to the woman nothing was captured. She’s relieved that it’s over. “I’m not scared, but when I wanted to enter that chapel, I was shivering for a while. But I was so angry. People light a candle there for someone else, and he would take the money away. I was able to hit him, but you don’t know what could happen.”
The restaurant terrace was packed at the time. But she didn’t get much acclaim. “You notice that people are afraid, nobody dares to do anything anymore. Some say, well it’s just one guy. But who knows, there may be a whole gang behind it. This just has to stop.”
Once back in the restaurant, she does receive a drink from a Spanish couple. “They thought it was so heroic what I had done. I thought that was very nice of them.”
*The name of the woman is known to the editors.
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