news-record.com

GREENSBORO - A 46-year-old man was charged today with stealing handbells from a church, police said.

Marion Corvona Jackson, of 437 Arlington St., was charged with felony larceny and three counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, according to Greensboro police.

He was being held under a $30,000 bond.

His arrest came after officials at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant on South Mendenhall Street discovered Sunday that a set of 48 handbells had been stolen.

A month had passed since the bells were used, and, with the church doors open most days, minister Jim Dollar feared they would never come back to the church.

Most of the bells were returned to the church by antique dealers who purchased them from a man selling the bells in small lots. The antique dealers, suspecting the bells were stolen, called the police and area churches, looking for the rightful owner.

The church has owned the four-octave collection of handbells since the 1960s, Dollar said. At that time, the church's congragation was 10 times its current size, so the church didn't have much hope of being able to afford a new set, Dollar said.

Police are asking local business owners who may have mistakenly bought the remaining bells to call Det. E.J. Bruscino Jr. at 574-4071.