Police hunting ‘real-life Grinch’ who stole presents from deaf kid
Police are searching for a woman who stole Christmas presents from the doorstep of a partially-deaf child.
Ring doorbell camera footage shows the thief running off with boxes containing hundreds of pounds of presents, which mum Victoria Bees had spent her entire Christmas budget on.
Watch the daylight robbery here:
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Victoria, from Cheltenham, UK, had decided to take advantage of Black Friday sales and said she had 'put all her eggs in one basket', frantically ordering dozens of items to provide a stack of great gifts for her kids.
Her purchases - which included presents for her five-year-old daughter and her partially deaf two-year-old - arrived on Sunday (27 November), but they were soon nabbed.
Victoria labelled the thief 'the ultimate Grinch'.
The 42-year-old said: "I know everyone's struggling but how could someone stoop so low?
"On Monday I was still very upset and disappointed about it, but now I'm just angry.
"Everybody's struggling, I'm making those pounds stretch as far as I can and I would never dream of stealing from somebody else.
"She has basically stolen my children's Christmas, she is the ultimate Grinch."
Victoria has also criticised the delivery driver for leaving the items in plain view, rather than attempting a redelivery - but her main gripe is with the robbing woman.
"I'm able to get some of the items redelivered, but someone of the popular children's toys are now out of stock," she said.
"By the time I get a refund, I'm going to be paying full price, and won't be able to do that.
"I am completely aware they are only things, with covid and everything, Christmas is about spending time together but it's things for the people I love.
"It's the fact it's a woman as well, it's slightly more upsetting, I don't know what it is but it's worse to me. I hope it beats her up that she's taken that from my family."
An investigation is now underway and police are appealing for information.
A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Police said: "Police are investigating a report of items being stolen from outside an address on Royal Crescent, Cheltenham at around 1.40pm on Sunday, November 27.
"Anyone with information is asked to contact Gloucestershire Constabulary through the website, quoting incident 247 of November 27."
Jake Massey