Vandals steal Christmas lights in Woodlands neighborhood

06:16 PM CST on Friday, December 17, 2004

By Mike Zientek / 11 News

Click to watch video

A group of grinches tried to steal Christmas from one Woodlands neighborhood.

KHOU

Frosty was among the vandals' victims.

The pranksters crept along the street in the early morning hours on a mission to slash and trash some holiday displays.

It all happened on the street that usually wins the coveted award for best holiday decorations in The Woodlands.

Despite the crime spree, residents of Timber Mill Street refuse to let the vandals steal their Christmas spirit.

Wolfgang Evans went all out with his light display, but it lost some of its sparkle early Wednesday morning when someone came by to say "bah humbug."

"It was slashed open," Evans said referring to a giant snowman in his yard. "I took hot glue, ran a bead of hot glue and just folded it over and glued it back together."

Evans's snowman wasn't the only decoration deflated.

The same thing happened to another inflatable snowman across the street.

And even the "abonimable snowman" wasn't spared the wrath of the vandals.

KHOU

Timber Mill Street is a repeat winner of the Woodlands decorating contest.

"It was heartbreaking," said owner Kirsten Bubier who noticed something terribly wrong when she got home from the gym. "It didn't occur to me at first. I wasn't looking for damage. I'm driving home to get my kids home from school. And the arch in my driveway had fallen over and I couldn't get in my driveway."

In fact, everybody's PVC pipe arch had been broken. By Friday, they were repaired -- but still a little bent and uneven.

Folks on Timber Mill had most everything patched up within a few hours -- Christmas was saved.

"They're definitely grinches," said Evans. "I don't know how they look at Christmas, but they can't look at Christmas in a positive way from what I see."

Sheriff's detectives are still trying to identify the vandals.

Meantime, residents plan to set up a couple of video cameras in case they come back.

And they had the last laugh since they were named "best decorated street in The Woodlands" for the third year in a row.