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Houston police release video of ‘Grinch’ holiday package thief in awareness effort
Police Chief Art Acevedo said “actual surveillance video” showed that a serial thief his officers dubbed “the Grinch” is stalking city streets, responsible for breaking into cars and stealing gifts and purses all across Houston.
On the surveillance video, the suspect was wearing a Santa coat, a Santa hat, had greenishbrown fur and was galloping around and clicking his heels while pilfering vehicles.
“He’s got a very distinct walking gait,” Acevedo said. “Nobody’s seen this character?”
Reporters were not quite sure at first whether the chief was serious — and he wasn’t.
Because as it turned out, there was no actual serial theft suspect and the fake Grinch video was staged by HPD, and the furry thief was portrayed by an actor. But it it turned out to be part of an HPD publicity stunt to warn shoppers to be vigilant of real thieves who will target residents while they are out at the mall picking out gifts.
Acevedo warned holiday shoppers in Houston about leaving their shopping bags in the car unattended while they go back inside to continue shopping, saying it
would be wiser to just go home and stow the gifts
away. “Now, these types of thefts, specifically burglary of motor vehicles, have led to stolen gifts, missing purses and money, sad children and overall killing the holiday spirit,” Acevedo said. “(Thieves) are looking for easy victims and easy prey. As you can see by this video, although it is a dramatization, what you saw actually happens in the city of Houston, all year round.”
He added: “I hope we didn’t give anyone any ideas about going around burglarizing vehicles in a Grinch outfit.”
After the news conference, cops and HPD communication staff could be heard plotting another staged press event Wednesday in which HPD will demonstrate these holiday-season car thefts in a Target parking lot.
Their plan is to arrest the fake Grinch in the middle of the news conference as the actor tries to steal more gifts, then put him away in a cop car and let the media “interview him” from the window.
HPD did not have an update on any leads on the real thieves suspected of stealing holiday packages from more than a dozen neighbors in the Heights area last week, as the Houston Chronicle reported Friday.