Members of Christ Cumberland Presbyterian Church are in disbelief as part of their identity has been stolen – a signature bell that has accompanied the church, throughout its history, as it moved from one location to the next.
The Lutz church became aware the bell was missing in mid-February, and officials still don’t know exactly which day the theft occurred.
“We were stunned,” said Penny Knight, the church secretary. “It was so heavy and so securely placed, that we couldn’t believe it.”
A bicyclist who frequently rides around the church’s neighborhood, first noticed the bell missing from its metal frame.
He brought it to the attention of the church maintenance man and the authorities were informed.
With the bell taken, the only remnants left behind were a wrench and a foam cushion.
“They took a long pipe wrench,” speculated Cumberland Elder Sidney Swindle. “They unscrewed some nuts up on the top that held it to the frame.”
Swindle added that he thinks the cushion may have been used to delicately lower the bell to the surface.
Given how heavy the bell is – several hundred pounds – the theft was likely a team effort, the church elder reasoned.
Knight, who has attended the church since age 12, said the iconic bell has “been a long part of our history.”
The bell was created in 1903 and has been a trademark of the church ever since.
Christ Cumberland was first established in Lakeland. By the late 1950s, the church’s wooden structure was uprooted from its foundation and relocated to the Seminole Heights community in Tampa.
“It was literally moved here by trucks and trailers,” the secretary recalled – and so too moved the bell.
After the church was torn down and rebuilt, the bell was displayed outside on a pedestal.
By the early 1990s, both the church and bell moved to another area of Tampa before settling in Lutz in 2002.
There the bell hung from a frame, stationed on the ground, between the sanctuary and the church’s adjacent building.
“In order to preserve it, we had it mounted on a concrete slab,” Swindle explained. “It was welded to the point that it would not move.”
This was done, in part, as a precaution to prevent kids from swinging the heavy object.
The theory is that it may have been stolen because the thieves think it has value, but Swindle notes that there is an engraving on the bell that identifies its original home at the Lakeland Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
“The bell is very sentimental to us,” Swindle said.
The church remains optimistic for its return — even hoping that those responsible will have second thoughts.
Anyone with pertinent information is asked to contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at (813) 247-8000.
Published March 20, 2019
