After four years of thievery, Ruben Trujillo sadly decides to
take down the city’s best Christmas display early
Gilroy – A Grinch stole Christmas from La Sierra Way, kidnapping electric reindeer, and leaving a sour Santa in their wake.
“When this happens,” said Ruben Trujillo, “it just tears me apart.”
It’s the fourth year that thieves have ransacked Trujillo’s winter wonderland, a dazzling display that took top prize in this year’s holiday decorating contest. Each December, Trujillo suits up as Santa Claus, regaling kids amid glittering reindeer, stuffed elves and electric trains. And each December, candy canes vanish from tree branches and plastic snowmen go missing, costing Trujillo hundreds of dollars in lost decor.
One year, he recalls, he interrupted a would-be thief driving a shiny Chevrolet Suburban, who tried to uproot a sparkling deer. He sleeps poorly when the decorations go up: it was 1am Thursday morning when he woke abruptly to find fir trees toppled and candy-cane-striped poles knocked sideways, the evidence of a late-night theft. Half-asleep, he lugged the most expensive items back into the garage, afraid the vandals might return.
In the past, he phoned police. This year, he didn’t bother.
“When I got ripped off three years in a row,” he said, “I thought – That’s it. Maybe it’s not worth it.”
Trujillo isn’t the only local Santa to face Gilroy’s Grinches. Downtown, teens were seen making off with electric reindeer, taken from the Chamber of Commerce’s display at Monterey and Fifth streets. A few blocks away, on Orchard Drive, Larry Pierotti ties down his vintage Christmas display, binding ornaments to the metal fence that rings his yard. Yet classic-car ornaments disappeared from his railing, snatched before his display could be judged.
“You kind of hope it wouldn’t happen,” he said, shaking his head. “The fence probably saves my yard.”
Gilroy police say the calls come every year, reporting defaced and disappeared decor. Unfortunately, sometimes the calls don’t come, said Sgt. Robert Locke-Paddon – and that means police can’t track the thefts.
“Everybody should report any theft to the police,” he said. “We don’t know there’s a problem, unless it’s reported.”
Holiday cheer is big business, with some enthusiasts shelling out thousands of dollars to outfit their homes. On Monte Vista Way, Robert and Barbara Hogue trim their house with tinsel and glowing deer, spending three weeks and more than $1,000 to brighten their block. They haven’t had a single theft, they said, probably because they’re usually at home.
Still, thefts have spooked some people, who don’t bother to decorate at all, said Carolyn Silva, a Hanna Street resident who populates her lawn each year with polar bears, elves and gingerbread men. Years ago, teens stripped her lawn of Easter decorations, carrying off a three-and-a-half-foot egg and a gigantic wooden carrot. The kids were later caught, she said, but it dissuaded some neighbors from decking their halls.
“I still have to run out and chase some teenagers off,” she said. “Some people just don’t want to do it anymore.”
Thursday afternoon, Trujillo dismantled the striped arches over his yard, halted the spinning toy Ferris wheel. Piece by piece, he packed Christmas away, boxed it up for another year – if there is another year. After four years facing holiday hoodlums, he’s frustrated and sad. Even without the suit, he looks like Santa Claus, disappointed to find the world more naughty than nice.
“I don’t know if I’ll do it again,” he said, and sighed. “It’s Christmas. You’d think people would just leave it alone.”
