14 DAY TRIAL // An elderly couple, who has been decorating their home for the winter holidays for more than ten years, found themselves without the beautiful Christmas lights when someone decided they were worth stealing. Neville and Maureen Hoyland had a unique decoration on their home in Blackpool, Lancashire, until the so-called Grinch came and took it all away.
The $818 (€595) collection of decorations was taken from outside the home when the owners were sleeping, even if they were well set on the house and fence. When the two woke up, they faced the sad image of their house without any of the traditional lights they worked so hard to install.
“The sad thing about it is we are near a school and a lot of people come with their kids through this way as a short-cut and they all stop and enjoy the decorations,” Mr. Hoyland told Daily Mail. Even worse is that the couple's grandchildren grew up seeing those decorations and were looking forward to enjoying them again this year.
The lights were a delight both for the couple and for their neighbors, but it may seem someone loved them so much that they decided to make them their own. Even if for the past ten years, nothing ever happened to them, this year they weren't so lucky, and some bad-spirited Grinch took them.
The lights featured all kinds of Christmas icons like reindeer, stars, stockings, Santas and holiday messages. The area where the couple resides is known as a very quiet and calm one, with a lot of seniors that don't really go after holiday decorations.
“It took me three and a half hours to put everything up and it would not have been a quick job to take them down – it's very frustrating. They were really securely fastened to the wrought iron railings at the front of the house,” Neville Hoyland said, according to Daily Mail.
Police officers are looking into the theft, but they don't have any leads on the Grinch yet. Hopefully, they will manage to apprehend the bad-spirited thief until Christmas and the Hoyland family will be able to enjoy their traditional holiday decorations.