HOUMA, La. — We've heard this one before...
An individual goes around town, stealing Christmas decorations from homes and attempting to take holiday cheer away from local families.
Unlike Dr. Suess' classic Christmas tale, though, this Grinch is real, and she didn't return the multiple lawn decorations she allegedly stole after her heart grew three times Thursday. Instead, It was up to Terrebonne detectives to find her, put her in jail and return the decorations themselves.
According to Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office officials, 31-year-old Nikkita Raquel Terrebonne swiped multiple holiday decorations from homes around at least two sub-divisions near Houma Thursday.
Throughout the day, the sheriff's office received several calls of inflatable decorations, wreaths, Christmas trees and more being taken out of resident's displays.
Working with the community, deputies opened an investigation into the thefts and by 7 p.m. spotted a white pickup truck driving on Coteau Drive that may have been seen during one of the incidents, officials said.
They pulled the truck over and found Terrebonne driving. After questioning, she took the deputies to her house, where they were greeted by a 10-foot tall inflatable snowman on her lawn that matched the description of one of the stolen decorations.
From there, deputies searched Terrebonne's garage, where the discovered a 3-piece inflatable reindeer family, two potted Christmas trees, a projector set, multiple wreaths, an inflatable penguin and other, smaller items.
Terrebonne was arrested and booked into the parish jail on six counts of criminal trespass and theft. Her bond was set at $3,000.
Deputies recovered the decorations so the victims could come and pick them up again.
“The hard work and keen observations of these patrol deputies, the help supplied by victims and witnesses, and involvement of the communications and detective divisions resulted in this Grinch story having a happy ending,” Col. Terry Daigre said.
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