EVERY CHRISTMAS HAS GRINCHES

                                       

A Grinch is a creep who wants to do something awful during the Christmas season. I will tell you about  three kinds of Grinches.

Stealing Christmas parcels left at the front doors

Truck-stalking thieves are scooping gifts dropped at the victim’s doors. left there  by UPS, FedEx and Canada Post, also.

Like so many Canadians, Candace Schwindt spent part of November 24—Black Friday—scouring the Internet for once-a-year deals. On the hunt for Christmas gifts, the Regina mother of two found some pretty sweet specials: Paw Patrol items for her young sons, an activity centre for her nephew and an assortment of cute clothes for her niece. Thanks to the ease of online shopping, all she had to do was click a few “purchase” icons and wait for the presents to show up.

They arrived December 4^th, via UPS: three packages were left in a neat pile on her front porch. About an hour later, however, another man steered his vehicle onto the property and walked toward the door, dressed in grey sweatpants, a blue hoodie and a plaid jacket. After taking a quick scan for potential witnesses, the unidentified visitor snatched the top two parcels and scurried back to his car. He made sure to return for the third box, the biggest, before speeding away.

An Edmonton man warned the public after a Grinch stole a Christmas gift from his doorstep. Todd Baldwin had a Christmas gift for his mother that he ordered online stolen from his doorstep just minutes after it was delivered, with security video catching the whole thing. “I think that we live in a fairly calm and crime-free neighbourhood but when that happens to you, you do feel a bit violated,” Baldwin told CTV Edmonton.

The video shows the Canada Post delivery driver walk up to the house and put the parcel behind a shrub near the front door. About 30 minutes later, someone else walks up to the door and takes the parcel. Baldwin says his neighbour’s camera caught the man driving away in what looks like an older white Dodge Ram truck. He thinks the alleged thief was parked near the home for quite some time before making his move.

I would suggest he's following the truck,” Baldwin said. “I don’t believe that I’m targeted for any reason other than the fact Canada Post was in front of the house dropping a package off.”

Denise Reilly saved up for five months to surprise her daughter on Christmas with a gift she'd never expect — an expensive pair of Lululemon pants. But she says a thief swiped the package from outside her apartment building in Kanata before she could walk downstairs. The 52-year-old single mother of two is disabled, living on social assistance, and said she can't afford to replace the $100 leggings in time for the holiday. The  Grinch couldn’t care less about her loss.

In Reilly's case, she was upstairs in her apartment when Canada Post dropped off the package three days early. The delivery person never called her to notify her, she said. "I don't know if they're overwhelmed with packages," said Reilly. "Or they're so used to people not answering the door that they just throw them up against the door. They don't even try ringing your doorbell. I was home and I know they didn't buzz me."

Canada Post said it is aware of delivery thefts. In a statement, the organization said the driver did a standard “safe drop,” which means the parcel will be left outside the home if the driver can find a safe place to hide it; otherwise they will leave a slip for pickup at a post office. The driver should push the door buzzeer to see if anyone is home before leaving the parcels on the porch or doorstep.

Residents of rural areas have a higher chance of being victimized by "porch pirates" who steal packages, according to video security company Blink. North Dakota residents are about 26 more times likely to experience this theft than the average Americans.

You're not the only one eagerly anticipating the arrival of all those Black Friday, Cyber Monday purchases and Christmas gifts. Package theft is more common than you may think, especially if you live in a rural area, according to an October 2018 study conducted by Blink, a video security company. The firm surveyed more than 10,000 U.S. consumers, and found that prevalence of that kind of theft varies widely.

States with the highest rates of package theft, compared with the national average, are:1. North Dakota (26 times more likely to have a package stolen) 2. Vermont (16.5 times more likely) 3. Alaska (8 times more likely)   4.  New Mexico (6 times more likely)

David Laubner, Blink's head of digital marketing and e-commerce, said he was initially surprised to find that urban areas were less at risk. But it makes sense, if thieves can more easily assume they aren't being watched by neighbours nearby.

If a package is sitting there by itself in a rural area, there's not as many people around to see it.  Roughly 1 in 10 adults say they have had a delivered package stolen from their home, before they got a chance to open it, according to a 2016 Insurance Quotes.com survey on "holiday hazards." Risk is likely to be elevated in the days closest to Christmas.

This year, about 83 percent of consumers expect to use their desktops and/or laptops for holiday-season shopping. A great number of them use their phones to make the purchases.  Hence, the packages are delivered to your home for this reason.

As home delivery increases, so does package theft.  You have to understand that there are more people looking for your packages than just you.

Until companies do become more responsive to this growing problem, there are a few simple steps you can take on your own, Think about having your goods delivered to a more secure location like your office, a local UPS store or an Amazon Locker. If rerouting isn't an option, I recommend requiring a signature upon delivery. This way, you're sure to be first to your package. If you arn’t going to be home during the day, leave a note asking the delivery person to leave the package with your neighbour. You can also ask them leave your parcel at the back door.  

Place security stickers and yard signs in strategic areas. That can catch the attention of burglars and make them think twice about targeting you.        

If a criminal is considering taking anything from my front door, they will first look around and see the television video  camera aimed at the front door  sitting on the upper corner of my house.       

Delivering a parcel in an apartment buildings should be left with thr Superintendent if the apartment dweller isn’t home.         

Stealing from Salvation kettles

The Grinch stealing Christmas is supposed to be a story reserved for movies and books. However, a community in Blaine, Minnesota, experienced the real thing, when two thieves stole a red Salvation Army kettle from outside a Cub Foods store on December 4^th. 2018

Surveillance video shows two people stealing the money intended to go toward Salvation Army services, which include food, shelter, rehabilitation and disaster relief for the poor. The thieves appear to have used bolt cutters to remove the donation bucket from its stand.

"I believe it's pretty low, pretty pathetic, to prey on a charity at this time of the year that's raising money to help those in need," Capt. Mark Boerboom of the Blaine Police Department said. "It was a brazen theft in the middle of the day."^.

"I believe it's pretty low, pretty pathetic, to prey on a charity at this time of the year that's raising money to help those in need," Capt. Mark Boerboom of the Blaine Police Department said. "It was a brazen theft in the middle of the day."

Police are still searching for the thieves, known as "the two Grinches." Authorities have released photos from the surveillance camera to aid in the investigation. It is not known how much money was in the kettle. Boerboom said that, if caught, the thieves will be charged with a felony, damage to property and possession of theft tools.

"The kettle is an iconic symbol around Christmas time," Salvation Army regional general secretary Robert Doliber said. "The money helps with services year round. We want the public to know we're anxious to catch the offenders. With as many kettles as we have out, this is pretty rare."

Doliber lives in Blaine and said the larger community is very generous. Last year, the greater Twin Cities area raised about $2.4 million. This year, it has set a goal of $2.5 million in donations using 370 kettles.

Video of the theft, posted to the Blaine Police Department Facebook page, has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Many commenters online want the thieves to stand at the red kettle post and ring the bell to collect money as part of their sentence.

According to the Salvation Army, the red kettles were created by the Salvation Army's Joseph McFee in 1891 in San Francisco. He wanted to provide a Christmas dinner for the hungry but did not have the funding. He was inspired by an iron kettle, called "Simpson's Pot," which was used to collect money during his time as a sailor in Liverpool, England. In 1891, he raised enough money to feed 1,000 of San Francisco's poor on Christmas.

These kinds of Grinches are committing these crimes in many cities. in the United States and Canada.

Stealing Christmas Ornaments

Grinches steal ornaments from public places and private property.

Police Officer Christopher Lynch responded to a home at around 1:50 a.m. in December 2018 on a report of a suspicious vehicle. According to police reports, the vehicle was located and an investigation revealed that one of the occupants had stolen a Christmas ornament from a tree at a Club Way residence.   The 20-year-old male thief was arrested, processed, and released with a summons to appear in municipal court. If I was his judge, I would orfdert the their to walk on a main street for two afternoons with a placard around his neck that says, “I STOLE ORNAMENTS FROM SOMEONE’S LAWN.”     Believe me. No one in that community would ever do that crime after that.

A man was arrested after being caught on surveillance footage stealing a Christmas wreath from the front door of a home in Hialeah, Florida earlier in December 2018. The police arrested Angel Hugo Soles Ramaguera, 55, with burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and petit minor) theft that took place on  December 7^th. 2018

Ramaguera, a Hialeah resident, was captured on a Ring front-door camera stealing the wreath from a home in the 1500 block of West 57th Terrace, stowing it in his car and driving away. The footage was published by NBC 6 South Florida for the viewers to see a real Grinch.

It is really unfortunate that creeps like the ones I described in this article have slipped out of the cesspool they came from but alas they are the kinds of criminals who will be with us every year.