BATON ROUGE — A holiday tradition at Cedarcrest Baptist Church is facing an unexpected setback after all of the signs promoting its annual “Breakfast with Santa” event were stolen earlier this week.

Pastor Bruce Worrell told WBRZ that the theft has put a damper on all the hard work the church has done.

“Santa Claus will be here, and we will have breakfast for the children and adults,” Worrell said.

The only signs left were found in storage from last year, and their electronic sign. Surveillance video captured a man in a pickup truck pulling the signs out of the ground in broad daylight on Monday, tossing them into the back of his truck and driving away.

“We have cameras stationed around the church, and we saw what happened,” Worrell said.

The pastor said the theft was particularly disheartening given the effort and money involved.

“This event is for the kids of our community, we do this every year, and we have gone all out this year to put on this event and the signs we had added,” he said. “It concerns me that someone would do that, and have no heart for the children and no heart for the fact that these people worked so hard for this event.”

The stolen signs cost the small church hundreds of dollars. Worrell explained that, as a smaller congregation, every fundraiser contributes to making events like this possible.

“It is a lot of money. Everybody puts in to raise money to do these things, so it’s tough,” he said.

With less than 24 hours until the big event, the church is working quickly to create replacement signs, though Worrell admits they won’t be able to match what was originally put out. Despite the setback, the church is determined to welcome families for breakfast and a visit with Santa at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning.