We posted a story Thursday, about the Christmas season getting off to a “grinchy” start for one Regina family who had part of their Christmas display stolen from their home.
In retaliation, Gord Dayman decided to put up a sign with a message to the thieves. It read, “Dear thieves, if stealing Christmas decorations is your way of showing holiday spirit, we feel sorry for you.”
Dayman felt that he couldn’t expect police to be able to solve such a small theft, but he still wanted to make a statement.
“One reason for the sign is just to kind of say to the thieves out there, come on let’s get real, its Christmas why are you stealing?” Dayman said.
The sign grabbed a lot of attention in the neighbourhood, but once it hit Global Regina’s Facebook page people put sentiment into action.
Bernadette Ripplinger and Samantha Duffy were both outraged by the theft, and commented on the story.
They had never met before, but both live in the neighbourhood and enjoy seeing the Christmas displays every year.
“When I looked at the comments on Facebook, everybody was so upset that it was stolen,” said Ripplinger. “It’s a nice display. The guy puts a lot of time and effort into putting this up in his yard, and somebody has to go and ruin it for him.”
Ripplinger and Duffy began messaging back and forth and decided they would surprise the Dayman family with two new inflatable decorations to replace the stolen ones.
“Christmas spirit needs to be around. It’s two weeks before Christmas, and the kids walk by here and they see the decorations and they just love it. That’s what it’s for. It’s for the kids. For someone to wreck it for the little ones, there’s just no words for it,” said Duffy.
Dayman was very shocked when the ladies showed up at his door with an inflatable snowman and santa.
Dayman says he wasn’t looking for a handout with the sign. He was planning on waiting until next year to replace the decorations, but it was a festive surprise.
“It certainly reinforces the spirit of Christmas. It’s wonderful that people care that much about what happened to us, and it does kind of reassure us that not everybody’s bad out there.”