Watch: Bear steals inflatable Grinch from Florida home
Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A Florida family thought they were being pranked after an inflatable Grinch Christmas decoration vanished from their yard, but security camera footage showed the thief was a not-so-jolly bear.
Shanick Suarez said her family decorated their Golden Gate Estates home for Christmas in November, and on the day after Thanksgiving they discovered their inflatable Grinch had been stolen.
"We were just dumbfounded," Suarez told WBBH-TV. "We were like, where did it go?"
Suarez said she suspected the incident had been a prank when a neighbor texted her a few days later to say the Grinch had been found two houses away from her family's home.
The Dr. Seuss character was put back in place, but Suarez received an alert from her security camera on Wednesday and checked it to see a bear attacking the Grinch.
"I never expected it to be a bear." Suarez said. "I thought it was the funniest thing ever. I literally, like, text my husband. I'm like, 'What is going on?' We were texting back and forth, just rewatching the video, sending it to all of our family and friends at five in the morning."
The bear dragged the Grinch off into the nearby woods. Suarez said her family was able to find it later, but it was too damaged to make a return to the yard.
"It's a funny story to tell," she said.
Florida bears have been known to tamper with holiday decorations in the past -- Longwood resident EJ Levin shared video last year of a bear attacking the light-up reindeer decorations in his family's yard.
