EXCLUSIVE: Dorset Police's most festive incidents unveiled
A Christmas tree robbery, money stolen from Santa's grotto and criminal damage to an inflatable snowman
A Christmas tree robbery, money stolen from Santa's grotto and criminal damage to an inflatable snowman in Dorchester - those are just some of the most festive callouts Dorset Police have had to deal with in the past six years.
Dorset's Police and Crime Commissioner is calling on the public to help the force by acting responsibly this Christmas.
A Freedom of Information request has unveiled incidents logged with a festive connection since 2015.
Vandalism, drunk and disorderly and a rugby tackled Christmas tree.
Many of the reports were concerning anti-social behaviour, including a number of crimes targeting Christmas trees and other festive ornaments. Here are some of the incidents the request unveiled:
- Drunk males damaged Christmas tree during night out - Bridport
- Criminal damage - Drunk customer rugby tackled the Christmas tree - Bournemouth
- Criminal damage to inflatable snowman - Dorchester
- Anti-social youths - Have climbed on top of the Christmas tree - Poole
- As female is being arrested for being drunk and disorderly, a man walking his dog and wearing a Santa hat wishes them a merry Christmas, to which the female responds with verbal abusive causing alarm - Bournemouth
Unfortunately, in 2019 alone there were seven incidents where a Christmas tree was either vandalised or stolen.
Anti-social Behaviour and Criminal Damage incidents made up the main bulk of the reports our request unveiled.
Stealing Christmas
The information also revealed a darker side to crime at Christmas. Some thieves didn't consider the sanctity of the season, and saw fit to take what wasn't theirs:
- Theft of 50 wrapped Christmas Trees from farm - East Dorset
- Shoplifting theft of turkey and teabags - Poole
- Unauthorised Christmas tree sellers - Poole
- Turkey rustlers - Dorchester
- Missing monies from a Santa’s grotto - East Dorset
Whatever the seriousness of the crime, Dorset's Police and Crime Commissioner David Sidwick says all residents should feel like they can report it to Dorset Police.
He said of the reports:
"It is about the victim. If you have spent a lot of time and effort putting a Christmas tree together on your front lawn and someone comes along and trashes it, I think it's absolutely right that you should phone in about that.
"We want to make certain that anybody who's affected by anti-social behaviour, anybody who is affected by crime that they are able to phone up and make those reports."
He also had a message for anyone attending Christmas parties or out drinking late over the next week:
"Everybody wants to have a good time at Christmas, it's just taking those extra few minutes when you're having that drink in a pub to think 'you know what, am I going to make a twit of myself? Am I going to hurt somebody by mistake? Am I going to leave myself open to being a victim of crime?
"It's just taking that little bit longer just to think about what you're doing."
A spokesperson for Dorset Police added:
"We want everyone to have a good Christmas and we hope they don’t need to contact us, but if they do and it’s not an emergency, we would ask them to consider using the online methods available.
"We have many online ways to contact us, which are easy to use and available 24/7, meaning people can contact us at their convenience and without needing to wait on the telephone to speak to someone.
"We realise that not everyone has access to the internet and some people would prefer to speak to a person, but by encouraging people to use our online methods means we can manage our demand more efficiently and prevent long waiting times for people who do need to call us.
"We would encourage people to click before they call and ask themselves whether they can find the answer on our website or by using our online directory AskNED which has answers to hundreds of commonly asked questions."
Here is how you can get in touch with Dorset Police this year:
Report Anti-Social Behaviour Online