Guy Dressed as Santa Robs Canadian Jewelry Store

The RCMP in Stettler, Alberta, are looking for a "pock-faced" suspect after a man wearing a Santa Claus costume and armed with a gun robbed a downtown jewelry store on Christmas Eve.

According to a news release put out today, the armed Saint Nick entered the Ware's Jewelry store in Stettler, about 124 miles south of Edmonton, around 4:30 PM on December 24 and pulled out a gun. He then demanded "various items, including jewelry and precious stones" before leaving the store and driving away in a black 2005 Hummer H2.

No one was injured during the robbery, and police located the abandoned Hummer in a residential area four days later. After looking at surveillance video, police believe an older-model pickup truck, possibly a Chevrolet, may have been used to relocate Bad Santa after he ditched the Hummer.

The suspect is described as a "pock faced" white male around 5'11" to 6' tall with blonde hair, and anyone with info is asked to call Stettler RCMP or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.

In other Christmas-themed crime, two life-sized nutcrackers were stolen from a front porch of a farmhouse just east of London, Ontario, sometime between the night of December 27 and morning of December 28. The nutcrackers, described by the CBC as "stately figures painted in bright green and red uniforms," had taken one of the homeowner Kelly Elgie's husband more than a year to make.

"We were devastated, we were stunned," Elgie told the CBC. "…Someone's feeling, I'm thinking, like a bit of a jerk right now and maybe they don't know how to give them back," she said, and asked the thief (or thieves) to just put them back at the end of the driveway.

Meanwhile in the Prairies, someone in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, stole a statue of the Virgin Mary from a nativity scene on December 29, the CBC reported, adding that people stealing stuff from nativity scenes are a "perennial problem around this time of year." The same report also mentions someone who beat the crap out of a someone's Christmas lawn ornament earlier that day, causing $150 in damage.

Now hopefully we can put this all behind us soon and get back to normal weird crime.

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