Father Sees Video of Family Member Stealing Christmas Decorations, Flies out to Help Resolve It

On Sunday morning, Dec. 3, a group of young people were caught on surveillance camera vandalizing and stealing Christmas decorations from a Colorado home.

Joe Stricker’s front yard got ruined after the incident. He is the creator behind his home’s festive design he calls “Stricker’s Winter Wonderland” in Centennial, Colorado.

Stricker sent the surveillance video to 9NEWS NBC in the hope that more people could identify the suspects.

The video depicts two people ripping out Christmas lights from the front yard of the house. Later they can be seen stealing a festive dinosaur and shoving it inside the back of their sedan, before taking off. A third person was in the back seat of the car.

The video, now viewed by over 66,249 people had one special viewer—the father of one of the people shown on the video.

According to 9NEWS, the father—whose name was not revealed—had watched the video on Facebook after an older brother alerted him to the news. The father lives out of state.

As soon as the unnamed father saw the video he boarded a plane to Colorado. Within four hours Stricker told 9NEWS that eight people from two different families were on his doorstep.

In an updated Facebook post, Stricker wrote how the individuals who stole and vandalized their decorations came to his house to make amends.

He said they were accompanied by their “equally embarrassed and ashamed parents.” Stricker said the young people took complete responsibility for their actions and accepted whatever consequences Stricker’s family would choose for them.

“When choosing our next step, we thought of our children and their faces when we told them that their decorations were stolen. We watched our kid’s uncertainty as we sat with the police to file a police report. The answer was obvious. The individuals needed to take responsibility for their actions and the fact that they had caused a crime.” 

“Throughout this entire process the individuals were incredibly gracious, kind and completely understanding of our decision. They agreed that the right thing to do was to turn themselves in and take full responsibility for their actions,” Stricker wrote.

The three people cited in the vandalism incident were issued summonses. Their ages are 27, 22 and 21, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.

No further details of their identities were revealed.

Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Julie Brooks confirmed to 9NEWS that one of the trio received a summons for theft, while another received a summons for theft, criminal mischief, second-degree criminal tampering and third-degree criminal trespass.

The third received a summons for theft, criminal mischief, and third-degree criminal trespass.

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From NTD.tv