A CHRISTMAS-mad couple had their 10ft-tall £2,500 nutcracker stolen from outside their home before thieves brazenly drove off with it hanging out the back of a car.
The giant decoration was taken from Doug and Liz Pecarski’s house in Spaldwick, near Huntingdon, Cambs, last Wednesday evening.
According to the BBC, security footage shows a car pulling up at around 8pm, with two people climbing over a wall, unhooking the towering nutcracker and dragging it to the waiting vehicle.
The couple, who have proudly displayed a pair of the festive figures for three years, only realised the next morning that one was gone.
Doug, 51, said: “Because of its size and weight, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
“It makes no sense that you’d steal it. Maybe someone was sick of being on the good list and wanted to be on the naughty with a lump of coal.”
He said they were “befuddled” when they checked the CCTV and watched the strange heist play out.
Doug added: “When we reviewed our CCTV footage, we saw a car pull up out the front of our neighbour’s house, two people climb the wall and in the shelter of darkness, toppled him over.
He said the nutcracker had been secured to the wall after the storms last year, but they removed the restraints and lifted it back over the fence.
It ended up crammed in the rear of the car with part of it sticking out, and because the figures are so heavy, it normally takes two people to set them in place.
The huge model weighs around 12.5st, and Doug says the alleged thieves even returned ten minutes later attempting to grab the second one but failed.
The couple’s home is known locally as the “Christmas House,” drawing visitors each year and raising money for Woodgreen Pets Charity in Godmanchester, where Liz volunteers.
Liz mentioned that her fondness for Christmas comes from watching Home Alone when she was young.
She added that the community shares that enthusiasm as well.
But the theft has dented the festivities.
Doug said: “You lose a little bit of faith in humanity. It was saddening and disheartening.”
Yet villagers have rallied round.
Shortly afterwards, local children left two miniature nutcrackers on the Pecarskis’ doorstep “for additional guarding,” along with a card apologising for the loss.
Liz said: “We’ve got a lonely nutcracker, he wants his mate back.”
Cambridgeshire Police confirmed the theft has been reported.
