Track the ox and lamb with GPS

Published 10:25 am Thursday, December 11, 2008

Like it or not, the digital age is here to stay. Cell phones have the ability to access the Internet, download music and offer television programming. iPods give music enthusiasts a path to downloading thousands of songs and listening to them on devices smaller than a credit card.

Some people refuse to embrace the technology and prefer to watch television at home, use only a land-line telephone and listen to music on the old-fashioned compact disc player.

Others welcome the state-of-the-art merchandise and find creative ways to use it.

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Such was the case last year when the officials for the Wellington, Fla. Community Center tracked their stolen baby Jesus from their lawn Nativity scene to a nearby apartment using a GPS device that was mounted inside the life-size ceramic figurine.

The incident, as reported in an Associated Press article this week, resulted in authorities arresting an 18-year-old woman for theft.

The article continued to state that “about 70 churches and synagogues eager to avoid the December police blotter jumped at a security company’s offer for free use of GPS systems and hidden cameras this month to guard their mangers and menorahs.”

Some may think using a GPS or security system for a Nativity scene is going a bit too far.

We say that if there are people who have such little respect for the property of a church, a synagogue or a community center to steal a baby Jesus or other Nativity figurines, then the use of digital equipment to right a wrong is a brilliant and welcomed idea.