Serial thief in Derby leaves locals fearing for their Christmas decorations after spree of attacks

Derby residents left fearing their front garden Christmas displays after several left ripped up and stolen by serial thief

A thief has been caught on a number of videoing doorbells stealing Christmas decorations in Derby, causing a number of local residents' fearing for their lovingly created front garden displays.

Footage from doorbells in Normanton and Sunny Hill show a man ripping ornamental features out of grass and cutting wires in broad daylight.

He can be seen taking stick-in-the-grass reindeers and hanging baskets.

The series of thefts have left a number of local residents fearing for their lovingly created front garden displays.Nickola Mosley was the first victim after her reindeer lights, worth £50, were taken at around 10am on Thursday (1 December).

She only noticed they had gone when she opened the door to let her children in from school that afternoon, hours after they’d been pinched.

Now the Derbyshire mum says she is scared to put up her 10ft blow-up santa.

Nickola said: “It’s just so bizarre. We can’t quite understand why they’ve cut them, because they’re not going to work. Are they going to rewire them? I don’t know.”

After noticing the decorations were missing, Nickola went to check her doorbell footage. In the meantime, she noticed the wire still hanging out of her window, and her son later found the scissors that the man had used to cut them discarded in the garden.

She said: “It’s quite annoying with the cost of living and everything and because I want it to look nice for people walking past and for my kids when they come home from school."

"I always get compliments on how lovely it looks when we turn the lights on when it gets dark."

“Now I’m worried about putting other stuff out there because some of it is worth more than the reindeer. I have a 10 foot blow-up Santa and I do not want to put it out there."

“Some children walked past the other day and asked me where our decorations were. I had to tell them we’d taken them down."

Hours later, at around 9.30pm, a man was caught on camera on Kitchener Avenue in Sunny Hill cutting the wire that supplied the power to a different house’s tree-shaped lights on their driveway.

He appeared to be trying to remove them but ran off when he realised they are fixed in place.

Then on Monday (5 December) a woman’s Ring doorbell camera caught a man, complete with a cigarette in his mouth, yanking decorative candy canes from right outside another front door in Sunny Hill in broad daylight.

A number of other thefts have been reported and captured, including that of two hanging baskets and candy cane ornaments.

Derbyshire Police have been made aware of the incidents and said: "The force is aware of two incidents involving the thefts of Christmas lights over recent days and these are being treated as potentially linked.

"Anyone who has information that may help our enquiries, or has been a victim and hasn’t contacted the force, is asked to contact us using any of the non-emergency methods below."