The Christmas decorations were already up at the Amendt house in northwest Regina, but last Friday night, a thief crept by the home and took something that wasn’t his.
Olivia Amendt and her husband, Eldon said the incident happened at around 1:30 a.m., when they heard a noise coming from outside.
“My husband got up and looked outside the window and noticed that our big seven-foot snowman and dinosaur were missing,” she recalled.
Within seconds, the thief took off with two of their Christmas lawn decorations. In the morning, they told their oldest son, Braxton, who was completely heartbroken at the news.
“He said ‘Mom, those bad guys cut my heart,’ and then he started crying,” Olivia said.
Braxton is only four years old, but he knew instantly something wasn’t right.
“What they did was bad, and they hurt me,” he said.
“They cracked my heart.”
The next day, Braxton’s parents took to the front lawns with a hand-painted message to the thief that read:
“To those who stole our snowman + dinosaur, your prank was not funny! All you did was crush our 4 year old’s heart!! Shame on you.”
Olivia said they hoped the message would strike a chord with the thieves, and make them realize the consequences of their crime.
“Maybe they’ll see it and realize that what they did was not funny and that it truly did hurt somebody and it happened to be a kid,” she said.
Since the sign was posted last week, it’s caught a lot of attention around the neighbourhood. Olivia said a lot of good has come from the unfortunate situation.
“One day we found two new blowups on our deck with a note from Randy and Kim saying that they saw our sign and our post and they felt really bad for Braxton so they hoped that these made him feel better,” she said.
In a Facebook video, Braxton thanked the anonymous donors, Kim and Randy, saying “you fixed my broken heart.”
Olivia said the gesture made all the difference for Braxton.
“It definitely brought back that Christmas spirit and taught him a valuable lesson, that there is a lot of good in the world, and a lot of good people.”
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