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12-foot reindeer decoration stolen from 69-year-old woman who loves Christmas

Posted at 10:16 PM, Dec 27, 2014
and last updated 2014-12-28 21:41:16-05

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.-- Christmas has come and gone, but some people leave their decorations up for people to enjoy for just a little while longer. For one woman in Grand Rapids, the Christmas season is her favorite time of the year. Now, after decades of making her house look like a winter wonderland, people stole some of her decorations including a 12-foot-tall reindeer.

“I have been crying all morning to think that somebody would steal from me. Why would someone steal from me?”

To say that 69-year-old Carol Harig likes Christmas is a huge understatement.

“I love Christmas so much.”

The inside of every inch of her home shows just how true that is from stockings, to lights, ornaments, and endless stuffed animals pack every corner. This is because her birthday falls on Christmas. Also, she wants to give her family a Christmas experience she didn’t have when she was a child.

“We were very poor growing up and my mom and dad didn't have very much money, so Carol turns her home into a Christmas spectacle for all to see.

“I love to put decorations outside my house for everybody to enjoy and I’ve done it for 43 years now.”

Her grandchildren are coming this weekend from Illinois to see it, and it gets the neighborhood families in the holiday spirit.

“We've been here for ten years every year they do something for Christmas. My favorite is a stocking that says 'fill her up',” said Adam Wolpa a father of two girls who lives across the street from Carol.

Friday night, Carol says she heard a noise on the porch, only to find a girl trying to steal a Christmas flag on her porch.

“Do they really need those items? No they don't need them. It’s just to steal and hurt people.”

She says her boyfriend chased the girl off, but when she woke up part of her arrangement was gone.

“Somebody stole a great big Rudolph the red nose reindeer with a head that twists and Christmas duck on my front lawn.”

Now she’s puzzled on why anyone would want a 12-foot reindeer.

“It hurts so bad that somebody would have the guts to take something off somebody's porch and steal especially at Christmas time.”

Now the remaining decorations are deflated, lying on the floor of her garage.

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“My baby granddaughters will not get to enjoy all the joy that I get when I have all my Christmas stuff up outside."

Carol says she is debating whether she will ever put the decorations up again

“I don't trust people anymore. I try to be good to everybody I know. Always have.”

Carol has contacted the police, but she says all she really wants is her decorations returned.