Someone’s a mean one, a real grinch. Several reports of Christmas light displays being vandalized around Flin Flon have come in after last weekend, including stolen property and destroyed items.
Kyla Reierson’s house was one of several around Flin Flon, particularly on the east side of the city, that was vandalized. A number of her Christmas decorations, put up less than two weeks ago, were either thrown around, destroyed or stolen.
“They took some of my decorations and knocked some lights off my house. I had a big ‘Merry Christmas’ banner on my garage door, my candy canes... they were found in the neighbour’s yard. The decorations of the Christmas tree and I had some light up presents in front of the tree, they took those as well. We had some plastic stars and candy canes on the siding that they took.”
Other residents in the area reported having decorations stolen, including projectors, floodlights, wreaths and similar seasonal items. At least five homes in the Prince Charles Place and Centennial Crescent area had items either stolen or destroyed overnight Dec. 6.
Janet Neill said the vandals stole what she called a “COVID-19 Santa” - a mannequin dressed up as the jolly old elf that can be used for family photos while maintaining social distancing.
“We put out all these trees and lit them up and we put the Santa out there - people can come and take pictures with it,” she said.
“Saturday morning, I got up and saw the two trees knocked over and the big tree was missing. They stole the tree and they tried to take my white one, but it was bolted down with some boards. They took Santa and away they went. They took the tree and away they went.”
Reierson doesn’t typically put up a large light display, but chose to do so after a year of struggle and anxiety worldwide. To add a cherry on top, Reierson found her lights had been wrecked on the same day her daughter celebrated her 18th birthday.
“First I was so mad, then I just wanted to cry. We don’t normally decorate that much but I told my family, ‘It’s been such a crappy year, I’m going to just throw a bunch of lights and decorations everywhere.’ So, I went and bought a whole lot of things and extension cords,” she said.
Reierson, along with some other members of her neighbourhood, have notified police of the holiday spoilsports. No arrests have been made in relation to the thefts.
Neill also called the police, but she said she won’t let the vandals ruin her Christmas spirit.
“I’m not going to let that bring me down. Things like this happen, it happened to us and we move on. I’m not going to let it ruin Christmas,” she said.
“Don’t let someone spoil your joy. There’s no sense getting bitter over it - what for? I had another Santa out there 30 minutes later.”
