When the statue of the Virgin Mary he ordered turned out to be twice the size he’d expected, Christopher Theile knew exactly what to do.Instead of siting the five-foot plaster statue in his garden as he’d planned, he put her outside in his street in Walthamstow, east London, and watched in wonder as, over the following months, she became a much-loved devotional object. “I was amazed,” he says. “People started leaving flowers and I saw them kneeling there in prayer. Sometimes cyclists got off their bikes, and I saw binmen making the sign of the cross in front of her.”For more than five months the popularity of the statue grew; and then, a fortnight ago, charity director Mr Theile had a horrible shock. “She was stolen,” he says. “Who wou