Police are on the hunt for some real-life Grinches who stole dozens of Christmas trees from a Surrey garden centre in the night—a loss which Christmas tree vendors say could be devastating to a business.
Sometime between when Hunters Garden Centre closed on Tuesday night and opened on Wednesday morning, thieves made off with about 50 noble firs—a $5,000 value.
“It’s sickening that somebody could do that,” said store manager Carren Laird. “It’s disheartening.”
The owner of the store arrived Wednesday to find the garden centre’s gate wide open and the lock cut.
The noble firs retail for $119.99 to $149.99, and are the most sought after tree variety, says Laird. They hold their needles the best, so they last a long time.
“It’s hard to get them at this time of year,” she said. “There’s a drought, so there’s not a lot of extra trees. You can’t just go buy more.”
Losing so many noble firs could severely damage a tree vendor’s business, says the one of the operators of family-run Christmas tree lot in Kitsilano.
“It’s a horrible thing to hear because you thrive on noble firs. They’re your biggest seller. To lose that would be a huge kill to your business,” said Brodie Amisano.
Laird says the thieves only left a few of the shortest noble firs. She thinks they must not have fit in their van.
“Hopefully somebody will see some suspicious characters selling trees on the corner somewhere,” she said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Jordana Springgay
