By Lee Ross , Greg Wehner
Published:April 25, 2023
-Fox News
An Arizona state lawmaker was captured on video snatching a Bible off a table in the House’s members-only lounge before stashing it outside of camera view.
The Arizona House of Representatives was alerted about the mysterious disappearance of a pair of Holy Bibles on March 23, which are normally left on display in the House’s members-only lounge, according to a statehouse source.
The restricted area is located near the House Floor and is a place where members of the House can go if they need to take a call or meet with other representatives or senior staff members in between votes.
Guests are also allowed in the lounge, but they are required to be escorted while inside.
After being alerted to the Bible disappearances, gumshoes with the House security team started searching the lounge for the Bibles and found they had been placed underneath cushions of two chairs.
Nearly a week later, another Bible went missing from the lounge and was later discovered to have been moved and placed inside a refrigerator in a nearby kitchen.
As a result of the disappearing Bibles, the security team placed a temporary camera inside the lounge.
The statehouse source said security cameras are placed throughout many communal areas in the House building, though the lounge was not one of those areas.
On April 10, when House members were in session, a third incident occurred, this time with the pair of Bibles in the lounge once again going missing from their locations.
The security camera captured Rep. Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton, a Democrat and ordained Presbyterian minister, according to her bio, removing the books and hiding them under two sofas in the lounge.
Stahl-Hamilton and her team did not immediately respond to questions from Fox News Digital about the incident on Tuesday.
In a video posted to Twitter by a reporter with CBS 5 in Arizona, the reporter approached Stahl-Hamilton to ask her why she was hiding the Bibles. She declined to comment, and instead, walked away from the reporter.
