The Grinch stole Christmas but then gave it back to Abbotsford single mom Wendy Ingram last week.
About two weeks ago, Ingram put up three strings of coloured lights, as she does every year, along the bush that separates her house from her neighbours’ on Spencer Street in east Abbotsford.
She painstakingly places them in a zigzag pattern, and it brings her a bit of Christmas cheer.
Ingram has never had a problem with them in the past, but this year she was saddened when she noticed they were missing on the early evening of Friday, Dec. 11.
She filed a report with the Abbotsford Police, knowing that they like to be made aware when crime is happening in a neighbourhood.
Ingram wasn’t sure if she was going to replace the lights, but she didn’t give it too much extra thought.
Three days later, she left her home in the morning and returned in the early afternoon to discover that the lights had been returned. And not only were they back, but they were “fairly decently” strung up along the bush again.
“I was flabbergasted. I was absolutely thrilled. I was so happy. I’m a single mom, and money is a struggle sometimes,” she said.
Ingram was so pleased that she later placed a wooden sign in the ground near the bush, with the words “Thank You!” written on it.
She speculates that perhaps the thief wanted the lights for a festive occasion and then returned them when they were no longer needed.
