Unholy thieves swiped a pair of glow-in-the-dark wise men from a Nativity scene on Long Island, police said.
The annual display was set up at Route 25A and Lake Avenue in Saint James by the Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 9 and featured eight plastic figures reenacting the birth of the baby Jesus.
The 4-foot-high figures were discovered missing when a chamber rep drove by the nativity Tuesday afternoon.
Suffolk County cops are investigating the incident as a hate crime because of the religious nature of the display.
The wise men are at a busy intersection, but cops have yet to find surveillance video of the larceny, police sources said.
It was not the first time a religious display had been vandalized in Suffolk this holiday season.
A menorah was trashed in Ronkonkoma on Dec. 4, when two 15-year-olds bashed it. The chamber’s holiday display tradition is in its 25th year.
“We just want to find whoever did this and restore the scene to the Chamber of Commerce so that they can have it for the rest of the season,” said the head of the Suffolk County Hate Crime Unit.
Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.