A real-life Grinch appears to have broken into a Nanaimo, B.C. home early Christmas Day, stealing wrapped presents from under a tree and even stuffed stockings while a family slept nearby.
“It’s obviously very traumatizing,” Joey Lanz told CTV Vancouver Island from the living room where the alleged crime took place. “I’ve spent a couple nights on the couch and pacing my living room like a… crazy person.”
The thief -- or thieves -- likely entered the home through an unlocked window, where police found fingerprints. Lanz also says he has been trying in vain for months to get an installed security system activated.
“And the worst thing is that here at three o’clock in the morning, your kids are sleeping upstairs,” Lanz said. “This happened twenty feet from my master bedroom.”
The thieves unwrapped and discarded some of the gifts as they fled the home, though many were gone for good.
“There was headphones and sweaters, hoodies, a pair of shoes,” Lanz explained. “A couple phones were stolen. Quite a bit, actually.”
Neighbour Scott Sled believes that transients passing through the area could be responsible.
“The regular opportunists seem to go through every night and they’ll check car doors,” Sled explained. “They’re not smashing windows and breaking into cars, but if you forget to lock it, chances are they’re just going to smash and grab anything they can out of there.”
A Block Watch program was formed in the neighborhood about eight years ago to help stymie incidents such as these.
“It’s been several years since we first started Block Watch that we’ve had any actual break-ins into homes,” local Block Watch organizer Frances Farmer said. “Everything has been rifling through vehicles that are unlocked.”
While Lanz was able to re-wrap some of the gifts police found strewn outside the home and give them to his 10- and 14-year-old sons, the rest are likely gone forever.
“At least the Grinch gave the gifts back at the end of the story, right?” he said.
