Last night some a-holes trashed my outside decorations. I have two small daughters (three and five) and I put some inflatables outside, snowflakes, presents, and a few other things. dh came home this morning to find them strewn throughout the neighborhood.

I was 'fine' with it in the morning, but here I am at 5 am, unable to sleep, thinking I should be up all night to 'watch' the house so we don't get hit again. I guess I feel violated and unsafe now.

I told my daughters that it was windy outside last night, so we had to put the decorations in the garage so they wouldn't get blown away. ;)

Any suggestions on how to deal with the culprits if/when we find them? The worse the better, makes me feel better about this all....

That sucks really bad.

I say put them back out and then crouch behind some bushes all GI Joe like and shoot the hell out of them with a paintball gun when they come back.

Ooooh that's all good idea! My husband has a lot of camo clothes.

Make sure that you report it to the police. A lot of times they'll have some a-holes on a spree of doing stupid shit like this, and if they're caught, the more charges, the better!

That really sucks! Travelgirl gives excellent advice.

I'm sorry that those idiots did that to you. Make sure that you do report it, you probably weren't the only one that they did this to.

I hate that!

We had a family of reindeer (that my uncle who is now deceased made for my kids) stolen from our yard a few years ago and I think about it every year at this time. I swear if I ever see those adorable reindeer in someone elses yard it won't be pretty.

I agree with what has already been said - file a police report first and then wait for them to come back . . . Paintball gun, airsoft gun, Water hose - I made those threats when our house kept getting 'wrapped' with toilet paper a while back and amazingly . . . it stopped. I think my teenage daughter put the word out that her mom was not laughing anymore.

This is a sign I made:

$100 REWARD

For the names and addresses of the people who went on an idiotic rampage and DESTROYED our outdoor Christmas decorations on Sunday December 16th (sometime after 1 a.m.).

This was in the area of 100B Av in the southern section (south of 102 Av) of Country Lane. They also destroyed decorations on 101 Av near 243B St, and pushed down several mailboxes.

Confidentiality assured.

6xx-xxx-xxxx

I'm sorry that happened to you Roberta!

We hung lights on our house one day a couple weeks ago then later on when it got dark (5-6pm) we went out and lined each side of the driveway with our red candy cane lights. We had more stuff in the garage (inflatable snow globe, spiral tree etc) but it was so darn cold we decided we were going to finish the next day ... anyhow, went outside at like 11ish that same night to turn the lights off and the candy canes were gone! Some @$$holes stole my lights ... man, I was pissed (still am!) So we decided we weren't going to put any of our other decorations out, which really sucks because I like to have alot of lights ... I had to explain to my 3 & 4 year olds the next day why their candy canes were gone.

What irks me is that all my neighbors have a ton of decorations and none of their stuff was touched ... we just moved here 7 months ago, and somehow I think we're just being picked on.

Sorry to hear they took your decorations, too, BlooEyez.

Part of me wants to put new ones back upp, but then again I think, what if the kids come out and see them destroyed again?

What a bummer! I'm so sorry that happened to you! I hope you are able to get all of it back!

Some loser in my neighborhood stole a $5 plastic bird bath from my yard last summer--talk about a low blow! Who really needed a cheap, plastic bird bath badly enough to steal it?

Whenever anyone steals anything from me, after I'm done being angry I really do try to take on the attitude that they obviously needed it more than I do.

It's not that I really believe that, but it makes me feel better about it.

We had all of our jack o lanterns taken a couple of years ago. We had a bench on the front porch, and had 3 of the fake ones, mixed in with 3 carved paumpkins. We come home from somewhere, and found them smashed in the street...and one of the real pumpkins thrown on the hood of DH's truck.

If I'd have caught them I'd put their head in the street with the pumpkins.

I know the feeling----so sorry it happened to you and your family.

Kat

Call the police make a report. Ask the neighbors if they saw anything.. Do you have a webcam? Or video camera you can put in the window and let run??

One house we lived in years ago we had this problem.. After the 3rd holiday in a year our yard got trashed I *Borrowed/babysat* A friends greatdane and put him right in the front yard on a runline complete with doghouse. And we installed motion senser floodlights. And replaced the decorations.

The next 3 years living there we had no more troubles. It was worth the cost to reseed the grass where the dog ran it dead in the month I kept him.

Whenever anyone steals anything from me, after I'm done being angry I really do try to take on the attitude that they obviously needed it more than I do.

It's not that I really believe that, but it makes me feel better about it.

I can't really take on that attitude, that they must have really needed to kick the sh** out of my snowflakes and handmade candycane lawn stakes that my daughter painted. They must have really needed to let off some steam by violating rudolph and santa in the worst way..............

Call the police make a report. Ask the neighbors if they saw anything.. Do you have a webcam? Or video camera you can put in the window and let run??

One house we lived in years ago we had this problem.. After the 3rd holiday in a year our yard got trashed I *Borrowed/babysat* A friends greatdane and put him right in the front yard on a runline complete with doghouse. And we installed motion senser floodlights. And replaced the decorations.

The next 3 years living there we had no more troubles. It was worth the cost to reseed the grass where the dog ran it dead in the month I kept him.

The police here are absolutely useless.

I'm going to install a security system in the new year.

Sad, as I thought this was a great neighborhood.