Bronze Book of Mormon taken from statue

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Police in Salt Lake City said they arrested two men who allegedly took a 30-pound representation of the book of Mormon from a Brigham Young statue.

Salt Lake Police Lt. Melody Gray said a witness saw the men break the book from the statue, which sits on a bench in the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument Park, Sunday afternoon, The Deseret News reported Tuesday.

Chris DeSantis, 58, who was walking to the Latter Day Saints Conference Center, said he saw the two "obviously intoxicated" men offering the bronze book to a passerby.

"He said, 'Hey, you want a bronze copy of the Book of Mormon?' " DeSantis said. "At that point, I realized what he had in his hands."

DeSantis followed the men and directed police to their location in a parking lot. Parley Mortensen and Stewart Bodenstab, both 26, were arrested on suspicion of vandalism and theft.