A serial Grinch has been daringly making holiday season rounds through Sundre – stealing Christmas house lights, a church angel and even a residential deer ornament.
In last week's Round Up, stolen Christmas lights from Kaylin and James Davidson's home was reported, and now there have been two more incidents. Six sets of lights and a two-foot-tall plastic angel were stolen from the Faith Lutheran Church on 11 St. N.E. as well as a motorized deer from Don Braconnier's home on Willow Crescent N.E.
Sundre RCMP said although no suspects have yet been targeted police believe the Grinch-like incidents are related.
Lourelle Vooys, a church program official, said the lights were stolen from the west side of the church late last Wednesday. Sundre RCMP officers were notified after she noticed the lights were missing on Thursday morning.
Vooys said all of the lights were donated to the church. She said the angel, worth about $25, originally belonged to her family and was recently donated to the church.
“It's going to be between them and God, but that's about as low as you can get. They will get it in the end,” said Vooys, who plans to replace the stolen ornaments at her expense.
She believes the thief or thieves were attempting to steal another five-foot-tall wooden angel because there was evidence of tampering and the star was missing from its arms.
Braconnier said he noticed one of his motorized holiday season deer ornaments was stolen off his front lawn on Dec. 7. He did not immediately notify Sundre RCMP.
“It was there Friday morning and I went downtown and about 4:30 in the afternoon I turned my lights on and it was gone,” said Braconnier.
He said the stolen deer is worth $70 and he doesn't plan on replacing it, at least not this year.
“I don't feel very good about it but I don't know what we can do and I don't even know what kind of people it is. I don't know if it's adults or children,” said Braconnier.
On Dec. 6, the Davidsons had Christmas lights taken from the front of their home. The estimated value of the lights was $150. The Davidsons are known in their 5 Ave. N.E. neighbourhood as “the Griswolds” because they use more than 10,000 lights to decorate their house during the holiday season.
Kaylin said since it was reported last week they have had an abundance of supportive comments from people within the community.
“It's good to have more caring people out there than people that are out there to do bad things,” said Kaylin.
“I think it was probably just a mindless act that was done out of a joke and (the thief or thieves) probably didn't realize that it actually hurts people's feelings.”
Sundre RCMP Cpl. Ryan Hodge said these three cases are more than likely connected.
“It's troublesome and it's the nature of the offence that it's against Christmas decorations,” said Hodge, noting that the incidents are being treated as minor thefts.
He said the investigation is still open but added there isn't much police can do until they receive information from the public.
“We always talk to people in the community especially the youth just to see if there is any information floating around,” said Hodge.
“The attention that it's got through the media might be enough that they realize to stop.”
Hodge said anyone with information is encouraged to contact Sundre RCMP at 403-638-3675 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
