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The Associated Press
Sunday, March 16, 2003; 11:32 AM

Stig Laegdene knows the Ten Commandments, including No. 8 - "Thou shalt not steal."

Car thieves in his neighborhood, however, seemed to have skipped it.

Laegdene, a Lutheran pastor who preaches to small-time criminals and others on the streets of Tromsoe, 1,100 miles north of the capital, Oslo, had his car stolen twice last week.

"I know hundreds of criminals, but I don't know if it was 'my criminals' who stole my car this time," Laegdene told The Associated Press Sunday.

Since he started preaching in Tromsoe, his 1986 Saab 900 has been stolen seven times. It's typically returned - or someone tells him where to pick it up - the next day after word gets out about its owner.

"When they find it was my car, I get it back," he said, usually in the same condition.

When his car was returned to him March 12, the last time it was stolen, nearly everything was in it, including his robe. Missing was a bottle of wine and a sheaf of his sermons.

"I hope they read them," he said of the thieves. "They were pretty good."