Rebar, GPS, and the Ten Commandments: Make Your Christmas Displays Theft-Proof

One of the traditions people enjoy during the holidays is taking a drive around town to look at Christmas decorations. 

If you were planning on traveling on Blackstone Road in Port Reading, though, one of the lawns is going to be a little bare. That's because some thieves took off with a homeowner's Christmas display.

Police responded to a call on Sunday, Dec. 4, when a distraught decorator reported that his six foot outdoor Christmas tree and a 3 ft. Frosty the Snowman suddenly vanished. 

It's not unusual, said Woodbridge Police Captain Roy Hoppock.

"We always get reports this time of the year that Christmas displays are stolen," said Hoppock, who couldn't recall a time when pilfered holiday decor was ever found festooning a thief's house.

Outdoor Christmas displays get more and more lavish, and for many homeowners, it represents a significant investment of money, effort, and time to coordinate the whole affair.

Is there a way to give your holiday decorations an even chance to survive the season safely on your lawn instead of disappearing in a thief's trunk?

There's lots of advice around the Internet on making sure your Santa stays put. A College Point, Texas blog, quoting their police department, recommends securing your decorations in place. 

"With plywood cut-out decorations, attach a 1/2″ conduit pipe to the back of the cut-out and drive the pipe at least one foot into the ground.  For inflatable decorations, use a long tent stake (also at least one foot long) and attach it to the loop or strap provided on the decoration to drive it into the ground.  This can also be done with lighted decorations such as snowmen, reindeer, metal figures, etc.," according to LivingInBryanCollegeStration.com. 

Another website that sells Nativity Scenes and other items has similar advice on making sure your Christmas decor doesn't disappear. ChristmasNightInc.com has some good tips on securing your outdoor holiday valuables:

1. Drive a wood post or piece of steel rebar into the ground behind each standing  piece and tether the piece to the post using flexible wire, clear fishing line, or nylon ties.
2. If setting up the display on a wood surface, such as a stable for a Nativity set, screw or glue the figures to the wood surface.
3. For smaller figures, such as Nativity animals or the baby Jesus, tether them in two places to wood pegs using clear fishing line.
4. Some of  our larger figures have attachment brackets built in to the structure. These can be used to attach the figure to the wall behind for items such as Toy Soldiers or Nutcrackers displayed on each side of a door or to a floor or ground for such displays as Nativities.
5. Bare ground attachments can be disguised using mulch or other ground cover.

Installing a motion detector and outdoor flood lighting - in other words, putting a light on your Christmas lights - is recommended by other sites.

Then there's LandAirSea.com, a company that sells GPS devices. They recommended on their blog that worried homeowners might want to hide a GPS gizmo in their inflatable Snoopy to make sure they can track it if it's stolen.

Think of it as LoJack for your Christmas decor.

"We write things to keep the site fresh," admitted Todd Eisenbarth of LandSeaAir.com. "It may not be the most practical thing for people to use."

That's because the cheapest trackable unit, which is about the size of a cell phone, sells for $369. "That's the sale price," Eisenbarth said hopefully.

The cost makes GPSing a Christmas display a bit prohibitive - although one church that got tired of Baby Jesus being stolen from their Nativity scene planted a GPS device in the display's creche.

So what else can be done, aside from tethering your lawn ornaments and making sure they're marked in the event they are ever retrieved?

One solution might be to add a Ten Commandments lawn tableau to the Christmas display. It may deter thieves in the spirit of the season, as in "Thou Shalt Not Steal Thy Neighbor's Christmas Decorations."