Grinch Steals Christmas from Family's Home

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- While a Savannah family went to see Santa Claus, a grinch apparently broke into their house and stole Christmas.

Stephane and Cyndi Pedaggi took their six year-old to see Santa at the mall on Sunday night. While they were gone, someone broke into their home and stole all the family's Christmas presents.

The Pedaggi family had always felt safe in their Ardsley Park home until now.

"The comforter on our bed was also taken so we're assuming they used the comforter to carry everything out of the house," said Cyndi.

The thief broke in through the back door that they had recently had replaced. "This is an 80 year old house, and the door was 80 years old. We felt it was very easy to possibly break into that door, so we had it replaced with this door and put a deadbolt on it, and that's what happened," she said.

The Pedaggis say many of the gifts that were destined for their tree won't mean much to the thief who unwraps it.

"A lot of it was sentimental stuff that they're going to open up and they're see that they don't want it or they don't need it. And what are they going to do with it? They're probably going to trash it," said Cyndi.

A couple of TVs, a Playstation 3 and some other things were also taken, about $8,000 worth in all. The Pedaggis say they never thought this would happen to them.

"We thought we were safe," said Stephane, who now intends to have a security system installed in the home.

Their neighbors were also victimized. They're all using this as a lesson to make sure they keep watch over what happens in their neighborhood.

"We agreed with everybody that we would let each other know when we go out of town and to keep an eye on our house," said Cyndi.

The Pedaggis will be able to replace a lot of the stolen things, but the thieves also stole things that can't be replaced, like the cufflinks that belonged to Cyndi's grandfather. She kept them in a fire-safe box that the thieves also took.

If you have any information in this case, you're asked to call police or Crime Stoppers at 912-234-2020.