It was a lousy Christmas morning for one Bath resident who awoke to find her life-size Grinch stolen from her rural roadside setting.
The home-made furry creature was part of a display outside Prudence O’Marra’s home — a holiday fixture in the neighbourhood for more than 15 years.
Her irritation grew three sizes that day and now she says she just wants the Grinches who stole her Christmas to return her furry doll.
O’Marra is heartbroken and no gesture could provide solace to ease her sadness.
“I even had a person give me $20 … I’m going to cry,” says O’Marra.
Her six-foot-tall Grinch was stolen from her front yard in the early hours of Christmas morning.
“We were up Christmas Eve until 12-o’clock”, says O’Marra, “and in the morning he was gone.
“And he would have gone before the snow … because there were no footprints.”
A doll maker, O’Marra made her Grinch more than a decade and a half ago from a furry green comforter she found at a local store.
“I got the comforter home, and there was so much of it … it was a queen size comforter … that I said, ‘I gotta make a life-size Grinch,’” O’Marra said. “So I took pool noodles and made the body.”
Through the years the Grinch has been displayed all over the property: on a rock in the front yard, hanging from a post on the porch, and one year, laying across a bench. In the last five years, O’Marra has propped up her prized possession at the roadside, in her Village of Bath neighbourhood.
Walking down her driveway to the road, O’Marra said, “he was sitting right where my sign is … that says he was stolen.”
Prudence O’Marra stands where her Grinch once sat
Prior to the theft, many residents had stopped to take pictures with their children.
“Every year, we used to put him up in the rafters … and every year my husband would complain that it was heavier than him!” O’Marra laughed out loud. “But every year the neighbourhood would see us as we were walking with this gimongous Grinch out to the road.”
Prudence O’Marra’s husband next to the Grinch
At the roadside where the Grinch once sat, O’Marra noted, “They didn’t even take Max with them … so Max is all by himself.
“And he (the Grinch) was sitting right here in a chair, tied to the steel pole. They (the thieves) had to go to a lot of trouble to take him, because he was really wired in and really secure.”
The chair was found in the ditch.
O’Marra says she just wants her Grinch back — no questions asked — a 6-foot-tall doll, this year wearing a mask, that she wants her future grandchildren to be able to enjoy.
“I just want him back … because I can’t make him again,” an emotional O’Marra said.
According to O’Marra, she has made reports about the theft with both the Kingston Police and the OPP.
Global News could not reach a police spokesperson for comment before publishing.
There has also been great support from local residents since O’Marra posted her loss on her Facebook page. Many have said they will keep an eye out, including Judy Janzen who posted, “This has been reposted to the Village of Bath page. Prudence, your beautiful Grinch may be missing but some people have left lovely comments about what joy he brought to people!”
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