LYCOMING COUNTY, Pa. — Heather Duitch of Williamsport walked outside Sunday morning and noticed something was wrong. Her vintage Christmas blow molds were missing.
"Noticed everything was gone. We had thought maybe some lights were out because things looked off, but we come to find out six of our blow molds stolen out of our yard," said Duitch.
Over the past few weeks, people in Williamsport, South Williamsport, and Montoursville reported stolen holiday blow molds. Blow molds are vintage light-up decorations. Many of them are worth hundreds of dollars and have significant sentimental value.
"It stole the Christmas joy from my kids. It wasn't about the money; it was about the Christmas joy," added Duitch.
All hope was lost until Wednesday afternoon. A resident in Old Lycoming Township stopped by the police department and reported that he may have purchased the stolen decorations.
"The result of him coming in, we were able to recover about 60 of these holiday decorations from a residence in Old Lycoming Township," said Sgt. Chris Kriner of Old Lycoming Township Police.
The police were able to track down the person selling the stolen blow molds. Lane Sarcinella was arrested and charged with theft by deception and receiving stolen property.
The police told Newswatch 16 that they were happy to restore some Christmas cheer.
"One of the victims had come after we recovered these to pick up some of her holiday decorations, and she had her two kids with her, and they were just so thrilled to have their Santa and Frosty the Snowman back and to see that was awesome," added Sgt. Kriner.
That victim was Duitch and her two kids. She says this incident won't stop her from decorating.
"We are going to bolt things down better and just be more vigilant every night, but no, they are not going to steal our Christmas joy. We are still going to be rocking our lights," Duitch said.
Now the Old Lycoming Township Police are trying to identify different owners of all the blow molds.
"They can call us here at Old Lycoming Township Police. We just ask that they have their police report number with them so we can reference it with the police report they made about them being stolen," Kriner said.
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