AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – The bronze Bible that was stolen off the masonic monument near Greene street in June has been recovered.

Steven Fishman is a member of the Scottish Rite Valley. He says just a month ago they were looking into replacing the plaque.

“The whole thing is a miracle, the whole thing is a miracle who would steal and desecrate a memorial and steal a Bible off a memorial,” said Fishman.

The Bible, along with hundreds of  historic plaques  stolen throughout Downtown Augusta, were found behind a closed building near Ellis Street.

Eddie Stevens owns the building.  He says deputies told him that 36-year-old Duterval Sejour may have stolen the items. 

Sejour died during an officer involved shooting Saturday that left a deputy wounded.  It happened near Stevens’ building.

Stevens,  says Sejour set up a homeless camp and kept the items in an area enclosed by a gate.

“As I started cleaning out, I had a dumpster delivered and there was old suitcases and they were stuffed up under things all over the place hidden and I started dragging them out and they were heavy,” said Eddie Stevens, Property owner.

Plenty of items were restored, including a time capsule from the Masonic statue….. something Fishman says they knew nothing  about.

“The resolution manuals from web lodge with membership, membership list documents , and these are just the ones we could save there was so many of them that we could not save” said Fishman.

Stevens says the property is being put up for sale and he did not expect something like this to happen.

“The next door neighbor who shares the parking lot with us had passed away a couple months ago, so it was just a whole bunch of coincidences that lead to nobody knowing what was going on in the back of that property,” said Stevens.

Stevens says he plans to get security cameras and more locks for the property to prevent this happening again.