Thief Hits Campbell Home, Steals Holiday Decorations

Nothing says its the holiday season like yard displays and lights.

For the Cohen family who live on the corner of Budd Avenue, the lights along the roof were accompanied by two polar bears, one 5-foot Santa, a blow up snowman, a sleigh with two reindeer, a couple of penguins and two lit trees.

The whole display took the family about four to five hours to set up, with the help of two neighbors. The display hasn't changed much over the years, with just a few new items in this year's setup.

Unfortunately, for this Campbell family this yearly tradition of 18 years was brought to a hault overnight Nov. 26.

"This morning when getting the paper before the kids left for school, my husband noticed the polar bears, Santa and snowman were gone - along with the power cords and boxes," said Danielle Cohen over email. "It made us all sad and to make it even sadder, my husband was let go from his job 10 days ago, so it has been a bummer of a two weeks."

The family filed a police report with Campbell Police but aren't expecting to see anything returned to them.

"It looked beautiful and festive last night," Cohen said. "We did file a police report with the Campbell police, just in case it is not a one time theft."

Capt. Dave Carmichael says that this incident is an isolated one and that there haven't been any other reports of this nature.

"I think it's one of those things that's unfortunate," Carmichael says.

There aren't many things residents could do to prevent this type of incident, aside from bringing things in at night, but there is one thing that can help deter would-be thieves.

"It's important for neighbors to watch out for each other," Carmichael says.