Unruly Squirrel Shatters Antique Crucifix While Trashing Michigan Church

Ste. Anne’s Catholic Church fell victim to an unlikely vandal overnight.

It happened this winter.

The culprit even shattered an antique crucifix, dating back about a century, amid the wreckage in one of the oldest churches of Mackinac Island (luckily, though, two church employees who also happen to be talented artists managed to repair and return the crucifix), according to mlive.

The church has records dating back to 1695, Mackinac Island states on its website.

The vandal turned out to be a rambunctious squirrel, apparently trapped, somehow, in the building overnight by mistake.

Leanne Brodeur, administrative assistant at the church, was the first to discover the ransacked church in the morning. She called the maintenance engineer, Jim Morse, mlive reported Monday morning (March 29).

“Jim thought it was a critter,” Brodeur told the publication. “We looked around, and that’s when we saw him. There was a squirrel sitting on top of the piano, looking at us.”

The pair chased the squirrel through an open door, returning him to the outdoors.

Afterward, against all odds, Morse managed to plaster the antique crucifix back together and Brodeur re-painted it. It’s back where it belongs, behind the altar at Ste. Anne’s Catholic Church.

Photo: Getty Images