Police are searching for a real-life Grinch who stabbed and deflated a giant inflatable Santa outside a family’s home as they attended a carol service.
Emergency medical technician Michael Cook, 40, was singing with his eight-year-old daughter Scarlett in Lowestoft, Suffolk when the unknown suspect stabbed Father Christmas.
Michael says Scarlett was ‘heartbroken’ after seeing the damage, and asked him if she had done something wrong to cause it.
He said: ‘Santa is quite an innocent symbol of Christmas, I just don’t understand why someone would do it. Scarlett is heartbroken.’
A neighbour said they witnessed the man stab the inflatable but were too scared to confront the man.
The witness reached out to Michael and suggested he check his security camera footage.
Michael, who works for the East of England Ambulance Service, said: ‘It’s annoying because you’re trying to teach your child right from wrong and something like that happens.
‘They’re like, ‘Have I done something bad, is that why it’s happened?’ I said, ‘No, unfortunately, it’s very poor people’.
Despite the bah-humbug act, Michael said he still plans to make a Christmas display again next year.
‘It’s not going to put me off. I will do another one, you can’t hide away. I’m very determined just to carry on.’
Suffolk Police said a crime has been reported and they will be liaising with Michael.
Some other families in Suffolk who put up Christmas decorations in front of their homes were stunned to wake up and see their lights cut down earlier this month.
Multiple homes across Combs, Great Finborough, Battisford and Stanningfield in Suffolk were targeted by men in balaclavas.
Police released CCTV footage of one of the men, appearing to wear a North Face jacket, cutting the wires of the festive lights.
Further footage revealed a man leaving a home wearing a light-coloured cap, light t-shirt, shorts and white trainers.
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