It can be hard to get people to pay attention to warnings.
Because of that the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Police Department decided to get creative and produced a porch theft warning video at Rand House, one of the West End's historic homes.
The minute-long video features a Grinch (or lots of Grinches?) casing the house and then finally making off with the packages on the porch. In full Santa Grinch gear it's hardly inconspicuous.
The video also features a Grinch-like soundtrack (though not similar enough for copyright infringement) and a voice-over with tips (but no Seuss-ian rhyming).
"Thieves are waiting and watching, ready to steal your parcels and Christmas cheer," says the friendly-yet-ominous narrator.
While the Grinch cases the house/waves to the camera the tips are shared, which all essentially amount to having the package sent elsewhere other than a porch (why did we ever think that was a good idea?).
It all ends with the Grinch sneaking off and immediately getting caught. He doesn't even bother running.
The police have a bevy of other tips on their website that haven't gotten pop culture skits. How about Elf talking about shopping malls? Or Rankin and Bass's stop motion Rudolph talking about holiday parties and drinking and driving? He does lead a sleigh team.
The tips really range, as well, from suggesting that if your tree is visible from the outside you don't put gifts underneath until the last minute or taking boxes to a recycling depot right after Christmas instead of putting them out in the paper recycling box to be careful with pets and gift wrap.
