Some goofy burglar in the San Jose area appears to be on a mission to steal Disney items — and Disney items only — off local lawns, and some families say their lawns have been looted of more than $1,000 worth of Disney lawn ornaments.
The holiday season is obviously a season for porch pirates stealing things, a scrooge-y scourge that unfortunately turns up every year. And we’ve seen a few particularly brazen holiday heists, like someone stealing SF’s giant Washington Square Park menorah about ten years back, or the infamous French Laundry wine bottle robbery of 2014.
But some shaggy dog in San Jose is a particularly maleficent Christmas thief. NBC Bay Area, KRON4, and KPIX are all on the case of someone who is stealing specifically only Disney Christmas lawn ornaments off San Jose lawns. All three stations spoke to parents Amanda and Nathan Steele, who had an estimated $1,200 worth of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Eeyore, and Dumbo lawn decorations stolen from their lawn.
“No other decorations Raj, just Disney decorations,” NBC Bay Area correspondent Jocelyn Moran told anchor Raj Mathai during that station’s report.
And as the wronged mom Amanda Steele told KPIX, “They only took our Disney stuff, we had six Disney items.”
“We just got Dumbo that night, just put it together, that was our new one of the year,” father Nathan Steele told the same station. “And it got stolen that night.”
But the Steeles weren’t the only ones in the very same San Jose neighborhood to have Disney holiday decorations — and only Disney holiday decorations — stolen from their lawns. “Between Nextdoor and the Ring neighborhood app, I have counted at least seven more people,” Amanda Steele told NBC Bay Area.
The tragedy is that this has shrunk the kids’ ability to enjoy the holidays, as other families had come by nightly to take pictures with the Disney decor. Though security camera footage, like that seen above in the KRON4 segment, indicates that this may be the same grey sedan used in a similar rash of Disney holiday ornament thefts from seven years ago.
The Steeles know they may have a better chance of finding Nemo than finding this thief, and the San Jose Police Department says they do not have a suspect. But Nathan Steele warns others in his comments to KRON4 “If you do have Disney stuff, he’s coming for you.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the San Jose Police Department at (408) 277-8900.
Related: Four Nabbed for Stealing Halloween Decorations in El Cerrito [SFist]
Image: PARIS, FRANCE - NOVEMBER 20: In this handout provided by Disneyland Paris, a general view of Christmas decoration during "Le Noel Enchante Disney - The Enchanted Christmas" at Disneyland Paris on November 20, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Handout/Getty Images)
