By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-24 16:37:46 | Updated at 2024-12-25 04:13:05
11 hours ago
This is the moment a real-life Scrooge starting 'slashing' at a giant inflatable Santa outside a family home.
Michael Cook, 40, was at a carol service with his eight-year-old daughter Scarlett in Lowestoft, Suffolk, when the perpretator pounced.
The little girl was left 'heartbroken' following the Grinch-like incident, and heartbreakingly even asked her father if she had done something to deserve it.
CCTV shows the man 'slashing' the decoration before calmly walking away as it deflates.
Mr Cook said: 'Santa is quite an innocent symbol of Christmas, I just don't understand why someone would do it. Scarlett is heartbroken.'
A neighbour witnessed the incident but was too scared to confront the man directly.
Instead he called Mr Cook, who was able to check his video camera footage when he returned home.
Mr Cook, who works as an emergency medical technician 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.
Video footage captured the moment a real-life Scrooge stabbed and deflated a giant inflatable Santa outside a family home
CCTV showed the man slashing the decoration before walking away as it deflates
Emergency medical technician Michael Cook, 40, was at a carol service with his eight-year-old daughter Scarlett in Lowestoft, Suffolk, when the attacker pounced. Suffolk Police said the owner has reported a crime and they will be liaising with him
'They're like, 'have I done something bad, is that why it's happened?'
'I said, 'no, unfortunately it's very poorly people'.
'I'm going to do a display next time, 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 the owner has reported a crime and they will be liaising with him.
It comes after just weeks ago it emerged that police believe a spate of vandalism involving Christmas lights and other festive decorations outside homes in one county may have been carried out by the same Grinch – or Grinches.
A total of 11 properties were targeted in a single night around Suffolk, leading officers to suspect the incidents are linked.
Doorbell camera footage shows a man in a balaclava sneaking up on one house before cutting the colourful lights draped outside.
Another video from a separate incident shows two men slashing a string of lights.
All the incidents took place overnight on December 5 in five villages within a few miles of each other, with the suspect, or suspects, disappearing into the night afterwards.
