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Bronze Book of Mormon taken from statue

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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.

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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.

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