Drunken Christmas Grinch Comes Forward To Apologise For Theft

A mysterious thief who almost ruined Christmas for a nine-year-old Sydney girl has come forward and anonymously apologised for their actions.

The Christmas grinch left a note along with two $50 notes as an apology for their actions.

It all started when a couple of reindeer lawn ornaments were stolen from the front yard of the Velardi family’s Middle Grange home in Sydney. Security cameras aimed at the lawn show a full car pulling up, and a young man running out and snatching two of the reindeer. The next morning, nine-year-old Chiara was devastated to find her two favourite decorations were missing.

The story gained local media attention, and Chiara spoke directly to the anonymous Christmas thief their during  a feature on 7News on Friday.

“You shouldn’t do that anymore and you should say sorry to my dad and my mum and me,” she said.

It seems that was enough for the thief’s guilty conscious to get the better of them.

On Saturday night at around 11pm two young men knocked on Chiara’s family home. Her father Roy answered the door, and the men explained that they had recognised their friend in the footage, and encouraged him to write an apology, which they were delivering.

In the apology note the thief expresses their guilt over their actions saying:

“I am very sorry for taking your reindeer. I was unaware of my actions due to being drunk.”

The thief goes on to encourage the Velardi family to put out more Christmas lights, saying “they were wonderful”. He goes on to say that  he hopes the apology somehow makes up for his actions and that he promises to “never do this again”.

Two fifty dollar notes were also attached to the letter, presumably to pay to replace the stolen reindeer ornaments.

Chiara’s dad Roy Velardi said he was happy to accept the apology from the men, noting that “they were pretty genuine”.

“I accepted the apology, I’m not going to take it any further. They apologised to my daughter too,” he said.

Chiara also accepted the apology, but the family are more weary now, noting that they take the decorations inside after dark.

“You’ve got to be wary now that someone else is going to come along and do the same thing,” Mr Velardi said.