ABINGTON, Mass. — Scott Leines’ front yard in Abington has 151 wooden characters on display along with thousands of lights synced up to music for the holidays.
It’s a Christmas tradition his family has done for 42 years.
“These are handmade wooden characters, some are from 1978 and some were just made this year,” said Leines. “We try to add two or three characters a year.”
But this year, Leines says he made 21 new characters to spice things up during the pandemic.
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He says the more holiday cheer right now the better.
“We did extra this year because this is what people are looking for this year,” said Leines. “Something to do, drive around and look at the lights – it’s free you can social distance.”
That’s why it’s even harder for Leines to believe someone would steal these characters.
“So it’s just been each weekend they come, and they take what they want and it’s the same group of kids,” said Leines.
Leines caught the group on his surveillance camera, where you can see someone stealing a character from the front, and then the other person comes back and steals two more.
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In all, five characters were taken over the last two weeks.
“It was Snoopy and Woody from Toy Story,” said Leines. “The next following weekend they took Sponge Bob, they took c3po and storm trooper from the Star Wars scene.”
Leines already worked to replace Woody, but he says it takes about 5-6 hours to make each one. This is the time of year he’d like to sit back and watch people enjoy his display instead of constantly working on it.
“I’m already looking at if there’s one more incident I might take the characters down because by Christmas there will be nothing left,” said Leines.
Leines notified police about his stolen characters, and he created a GoFundMe page to offer a reward to anyone who identifies these suspects.
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