Police need help finding nutcracker thief

Pasadena police are on the hunt for a woman caught on camera steeling giant Christmas decorations off of her victim’s front porch.

Call her the Grinch who stole Christmas. The theft happened at a home on Cogg Hill Drive. Police released surveillance video in hopes the public can help identify the woman. You can see the thief steps up on the front porch and appears to hold the hand of a towering nutcracker statue. She stays there for a while seemingly dazed. Then she grabs one of the two statues and rolls it away. She comes back and grabs the other one too.

The homeowner posted the surveillance video on Facebook. It’s been shared more than 23,000 times in the past day. The theft by this unidentified woman has left neighbors concerned, and police advising neighbors to secure their property.

“It’s bad all over. I mean this is a nice neighborhood, and we have people come in that we don’t know, and some of the neighbors, we’ve talked and said we’re just gonna have to keep our eye open,” neighbor James Raney said.

“We would encourage anyone to install motion activated lighting on their home. Larger Christmas decorations such as these nutcrackers or inflatables, you want to try to anchor those down,” said Lt. James Holt with the Pasadena Police Department.

Police say the thief got away with $800 of Christmas decorations. The theft happened Tuesday morning just after 2 a.m.

The homeowner is asking anyone who might know who this suspect is to call Pasadena police detective Rick Teepe at 713-475-7869.

There are no other reports of theft on this street in the past year, said police.