Part of York Christmas display stolen

It didn’t take long for a Grinch to swipe a portion of a York Christmas display.

The man in charge of putting up the Christmas tree at the York Farmers Market on North Congress Street told York police part of the set up disappeared during the Nov. Nov. 20-23 weekend, shortly after the holiday display was put up.

A 50-foot long rubber mat was laid over a power cord running from the Christmas tree to a power box, to protect the cord from being run over by cars in the parking lot.

But sometime between 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20, and 9:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 23, the protective mat vanished. The owner reported the theft to police.

Security camera footage shows an unmarked white van pull into the farmers market lot sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, then leave a couple hours later. The mat can be seen being laid down on the security tape, but by the time the sun rises the next day, the mat is gone, according to the incident report.

Police estimate the value of the mat at $250.

This story was originally published November 29, 2015 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Part of York Christmas display stolen."