BATON ROUGE – Call it a Christmas miracle – or maybe an early Christmas present for a family: Years after priceless pictures of their child’s christening were stolen, an East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Department detective found and returned the files Thursday.

Within an hour of posting some of the pictures on Facebook Thursday morning, the sheriff’s office received this response: “ This is our family! What an unexpected blessing to get these pictures back”

The family’s post came six minutes after the department’s initial Facebook post. The files were returned before lunch.

The sheriff’s office said detectives recently confiscated a stolen camera during a sting operation. On the camera, detectives found the image files of the family – parents with their newborn in the christening gown flanked by what appears to be godparents. Data on the images showed the pictures were from July 2015.

Facebook posts quickly recognized the church alter in the background as Our Lady of Mercy and not long after, the family finished connecting the dots in an emotional response.

“Thanks everyone for the messages and thank you so much to these detectives for going the extra mile to get this back to us!! We will be able to get it back today!”

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