Not Only Do Police Suspect This Mass. Woman of Vandalizing Two Churches, but Wait Until You Read What She Attacked Cops With

On Tuesday, police in Haverhill, Massachusetts, arrested a woman suspected of vandalizing a church in the area by writing 666 on it. While that's not the most original form of desecration, police say the woman is also a suspect in one of the oddest crime stories of the year: She may also be the one behind stealing the baby Jesus from a local nativity scene and replacing it with a bloody pig skin.

But wait, the weirdness doesn't end there. The female suspect apparently wielded a metal crucifix when authorities tried to apprehend her.

Last week, TheBlaze reported on the shocking story of a Nativity scene that was vandalized outside of a Haverhill church involving the swine swap. This week, a witness spotted Haverhill resident Amarellis Cermeno scrawling the satanic reference of "666" on La Iglesia Biblica Bautista with a black marker. The witness snapped a photo of Cermeno writing the offending number on the church wall a few times and reported it to police.

Image: Twitter 

Cops quickly located Cermeno and approached her on the street. That's when she reportedly attempted to strike both a Haverhill police officer and a detective with a large metal crucifix she was brandishing. The police took Cermeno into custody without further incident and neither of the officers was injured in the attack.

The large crucifix was also identified as one that was stolen from the vandalized Nativity scene at Sacred Hearts church. The crucifix was one that had been added to the display by someone in the neighborhood, after the protective Plexiglas cover was ripped off on Christmas Eve.

You can see pictures of the woman, the crucifix and the vandalism over at MyFoxBoston.com.

Detective Lieutenant Robert Pistone of the Haverhill police confirmed that to TheBlaze: "She was found doing vandalism on a church and in possession of a crucifix stolen from Sacred Hearts."

When asked if police had connected Cermeno to the robbery of the Jesus figure, Pistone told TheBlaze, "Not yet, but she is certainly someone we're looking at."

Cermeno was booked Tuesday, held without bail and charged with a slew of offenses, including assault with a dangerous weapon, malicious destruction of property over $250, disorderly conduct, destruction of a place of worship and resisting arrest.

At press time, Cermeno's arraignment had not yet taken place. We will add any updates to this story when we receive them.

Watch the local TV report.

Editor's note: Shortly after we published this story, Cermeno was ordered to undergo a 20-day psychiatric evaluation.

(H/T: MyFoxBoston.com)

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Follow Mike Opelka (@Stuntbrain) on Twitter.