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Only On 2: The Grinch Stole ... Halloween? Thieves Take Off With Holiday Decor All Over Woodland Hills

WOODLAND HILLS (CBSLA.com) —  The Grinch, like Christmas, sometimes comes early.

Authorities in Woodland Hills say some thieves made off with a large number of Halloween decorations all over one entire neighborhood Tuesday evening, about a mile radius.

Many of the thefts, the apparent work of two men, were caught on tape.

CBS2's Tom Wait spoke to residents about the pilfered and purloined decorations.

It's a story that is Only On 2.

A Jeep is seen on the security camera. Seconds later, what appears to be the two men emerge from the darkness and within a few moments they're ripping off decorations from someone's house and running off into the night.

"The first time, they took the headstones and one of those bats," says Thomas Lander, a resident whose decorations were stolen from his yard.

Lander owns the Woodland Hills house the thieves targeted. He says the brazen thieves made two trips to his home. The second time they stole a giant inflatable pumpkin.

"You know it's for the kids. It's kind of sad," Lander said.

Lander's house on Dolorosa Street was just one of several houses targeted by these Halloween Grinches Tuesday night. At least three other houses in a 1-mile area got hit.

"I think it's just vandalism of kids," said Lela Moaven, also a Woodland Hills resident.

Moaven, a mom, told Wait the family's inflatable skeleton was taken right out of the front yard.

"Try explaining that to your 9-year-old daughter," Moaven said. "She loved that thing. It was big and it had a light, and the eyes."

"It makes me really sad. We had that for about three years," said Moaven.

The people who live here told Wait their neighborhood has become something of a destination for trick or treaters, making it harder to understand why anyone would try to ruin it for the kids.

"You take pride in decorating and getting into the holiday, for something like this to happen, you don't have a good day after something like this takes place," said Dean Jansen.

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