Santa gifts stolen from Wiltshire garden centre
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Just a fortnight since it fell victim to a break-in, Palmer Gardens in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, has had more lights stolen as well as more than 200 Christmas presents from its homemade grotto – a day after it unveiled the festive display.
Staff made the heartbreaking discovery on Saturday after they hosted their Christmas lights switch-on on Thursday evening. Offenders walked away with 40 metres worth of lights in the last theft.
In their latest attack, the garden centre had more lights from its entrance area stolen, as well as lights from its newly installed grotto and nearby Christmas tree displays.
The culprits also walked away with 200 ready-wrapped presents that Santa would be giving out to children.
Emma Black, training manager at Palmer Gardens, called the incident an act of “mindless vandalism”. She added: “We are looking at about £1,000 cost for the lights.
"It was only when we walked a bit further that we thought where are all the presents?
“They have even stolen all the baubles and some of the lights off the Christmas tree as well as some of the lights on the tree and they have gone back to where lights were stolen before and took another 20 metres.
“We had an amazing night at our lights switch-on and we had around 500 people attend the night but following the break-in, we’ve added that it will cost around £2,500 to repair all the damage.”
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