A handful of residents in B.C.’s Southern Interior are likely toasting a local citizen this week after having their stolen Christmas decorations returned.
Police in Sicamous and Salmon Arm say the tipster notified them after connecting the dots by scrolling through social media and noticing posts about stolen lawn decorations.
RCMP called the thefts “Grinch-like” and praised the citizen.
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Sicamous RCMP say they received two reports of stolen lawn decorations on Dec. 7 — a 10-foot tall inflatable Frosty the Snowman that was taken from a yard on TCH Frontage Road, and a large Santa in his sleigh from a home on Cottonwood Avenue.
“The tipster had been reviewing online social media posts and saw that a Sicamous woman shared that her child’s inflatable unicorn had also been taken from the front yard of her Conn Street home,” police said in a press release on Tuesday.
“A separate post from a Salmon Arm, resident in the Auto Road area, claimed that their daughter’s inflatable Grinch had been swiped from their lawn, too.”
Two reindeer were also allegedly stolen from a Salmon Arm residence.
Police say the tipster told Sicamous RCMP that all the suspected stolen items were now on display in a yard in southeast Salmon Arm.
“Mounties from both Sicamous and Salmon Arm attended to the Salmon Arm home where they found, what they believed to be, all of the stolen decorations on display in front of the home,” said Sicamous RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil.
“When questioned by investigators, the resident advised they had recently purchased the items from an unnamed person and claimed they did not know they were stolen. Officers seized the items and have returned them to their rightful owners.”
“In the end, Santa and his reindeer were rescued from the clutches of a real-life Christmas Grinch,” said Salmon Arm Staff Sgt. Scott West.
“Saint Nick, Frosty and the reindeer are now all back at their homes where they belong, unharmed. We hope the next time we see them are on Christmas Eve, all except the Grinch, of course.”
