MIDLAND, Texas — Stacy Swisher and her mom, Linda Pryor, are glad these last few days have finally calmed down.
Tuesday morning they were finally reunited with the family's valuable Christmas decoration, Santa Claus in his red sleigh. It was stolen off Linda's porch on Cuthbert Avenue last Thursday.
"I just can't think of Santa being stolen, I couldn’t see the purpose in it. We’re just glad to have it back. It’s sentimental value. I mean it was my only granddaughter's," says Linda Pryor. "She had it as a little toddler and once she outgrew it we gave it to her for decoration, my daughter was very upset it was taken," said Stacy Swisher.
Linda caught a woman stealing this sleigh on her Ring camera and immediately called her daughter, Stacy.
"She said somebody, I just saw on my camera that somebody stole Santa. I’m like 'What?' so she sent the video to me and sure enough. You see her walking up to the door and you see Santa in the background and then the video ended and there was no Santa," Swisher said.
Once she saw the footage, Swisher took to social media to see if anyone knew where Santa could be.
"I just started posting on Nextdoor, Ring and Facebook and everybody started sharing. I had neighbors get ahold of me and say they had packages stolen and it’s the same girl. Everybody has Ring so everybody caught her on camera, it seems a little ridiculous she looked right at the camera," Swisher said.
Thanks to the power of social media, they were tagged in Midland Police's Facebook post about their stolen sleigh finally being found and ready to be picked up at the department.
"We’re just appreciative of the community looking out for each other. I mean that’s how we always are and we’re appreciate that others are doing the same," said Swisher.
Pryor has decided to not press any charges towards to the woman who stole her Santa off her porch.
If you have a package or décor item that has been stolen you can file a theft report to Midland Police online, over the phone or in-person. You will need to provide your item's value, your address and any surveillance video you may have.