A Pinellas County neighborhood wakes up to a nasty surprise they say is ruining the holiday spirit.
The Rodriguez family found their Santa inflatable on the ground and completely deflated. When they searched through it, they found a big slash down its side. What the crook didn’t know, his crime was caught on camera.
To say this family loves Christmas is a big understatement. Everywhere you look in their home you’ll find plenty of decorations. They even have two Christmas trees. But their pride and joys are their front yard inflatable. Lots of Christmas cheer around until they saw Santa.
“It was a pretty clean cut so you could see that it was from a razor blade," said Timothy Rodriguez.
Then they checked their surveillance cameras.
“They are definitely a Christmas Grinch, yeah trying to steal Christmas," he said of the crooks.
Rodriguez says the bold crook parked their Silver Jeep Wrangler in their driveway. All of it shown on surveillance footage.
“He got spooked by all the vehicles in the area so he jumped back in his car and took off," he said.
But 20 minutes later, the crook comes back. This time he parks away from the house. The footage shows just how quickly Santa went down.
“We were pretty upset, I mean we put the things out there so the kids can enjoy," said Rodriguez.
That slasher went down the neighborhood and took out at least two other inflatables. One of the neighbors even caught him in the act and drove after them but couldn’t catch up. Rodriguez says he hopes the man responsible gets what he deserves.
“Probably some coal or some dead inflatables," he said.
Maybe not coal but anyone caught could get a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge. The family, though, not letting this Grinch win. Using a hot glue gun and tape they patched up old Saint Nick. He’s sticking around through the end of Christmas.
