Larose cyclist, passenger lead State Police on high-speed chase
December 11, 2015
Over the Drone
December 16, 2015
For 5-year-old Harry Franz of Houma, the house-high reindeer affectionately referred to as “Rudy” was more than a mere Christmas decoration.
Harry’s parents, Carolyn and Dan, told him the ginormous inflatable was how Santa would find him on Christmas Eve, and for more than two years the plan hasn’t failed.
Then, on Thursday night, the unthinkable happened.
“Somebody took him,” said Harry, who proposed a family search party upon learning of Rudy’s theft.
The crime is among several Christmas capers reported to the Houma Police Department over the past week, including the theft of a baby Jesus statue from its Terrebonne Parish courthouse square crèche, and of inflatables from other subdivision lawns.
The infant Jesus statue was part of a new courthouse display, said Anne Picou, the parish planning and zoning employee who is the manager of its Main Street program.
“On Dec 4th parish government employees placed a brand new nativity scene in the court square,” Picou said. “Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, manger, and stable are all new for 2015 year. I was walking through the court square and noticed baby Jesus was no longer in the manger but a pacifier was instead in the manger.”
Picou said she contacted a buildings and grounds supervisor to determine if anyone in that department had removed the statue, but was told that was not the case.
First thing Friday morning, Picou said, she notified the police department and a report was filed.
Cameras are in place at the square, and Picou said she was told officers are reviewing their recordings to determine if they hold clues to the identity of whoever committed the theft.
In 2012 other statues related to the manger scene were stolen, Picou said.
“I don’t get it,” said Picou, who asked for anyone with information to call 873-6408.
This year was also not the first time the Franz family was victimized by Grinch-like thievery.
“We got Rudy because our yard decorations were taken three years ago from our yard,” said Carolyn Franz, who had to share with a tearful Harry darker shades of human behavior.
If someone wanted a reindeer, Harry reasoned, why didn’t they go to a store and buy one, like his parents did.
“We’re hoping it was possibly a kid, I would hope so,” Carolyn said.
No matter the circumstances, she and the rest of the family hold fast to the possibility that the reindeer might be returned.
And if that happens Harry has a message.
‘Don’t take him again,” Harry said.
A pacifier was left in place of a stolen baby Jesus at Houma’s courthouse square. In a city subdivision 5-year-old Harry Franz mourns the theft of his 15-foot inflatable reindeer friend. City police are investigating both cases.
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