nws snow globe

A Good Samaritan surprised an Eltingville family with a "Frozen" snow globe ornament for their front lawn. Their previous one was taken last week. (Photo courtesy of the family)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A sweet teenager from upstate New York gave up a precious ornament to help an Eltingville family find that Christmas joy after a Grinch had stolen it -- along with their decorations.

Lisa Cormier, of Laredo Avenue, was getting ready to head out of her home Wednesday afternoon when the doorbell rang. When she opened the door, a young gentleman from Saugerties, N.Y. invited her to come outside.

When she stepped out, she saw a six-foot Anna and Elsa from "Frozen" air-blown snow globe, similar to the one that was taken from the family's front lawn last week.

"I came outside and it was immediate tears," said Cormier, who guessed the stranger was around 16 or 17 years old. "He (the Good Samaritan whose last name is Sussin) told me it was his prized possession. I'm humbled someone would give up something so dear to them to make my child happy.

"It humbles you."

Cormier's 5-year-old daughter, who was distraught over the inflatable snow globe's disappearance, said, "That's mine?"

"The smile on my daughter's face was priceless," the mom said.

Cormier said the teen runs a Christmas light spectacular in his hometown and heard about the family's stolen Christmas decorations after seeing the Staten Island Advance story on Facebook.

"He said, 'It would be better on your front lawn than part of my display,'" she said. "There aren't enough words to say thank you. Now, I will pay it forward."

GRINCH STRIKES

For three straight nights last week, holiday grinches came to the Cormier's home on Laredo Avenue and stole approximately $500 worth of Christmas ornaments from the front lawn, she said.

Surveillance footage shows a man wearing white pants and a black sweater walking in front of Cormier's home on Dec. 5 at around 11:20 p.m.

In the video, the man walks around the property, apparently inspecting what was on the front lawn. Then, Cormier claims, he disconnected three inflatables -- Anna and Elsa from "Frozen" and a snow globe -- waited for the ornaments to deflate, folded them up and walked away with them.

"My husband left the house at night to go to work and realized that they were gone," the woman said.

As if one theft wasn't enough, another one occurred the next day, also around 11:20 p.m., she said.

Surveillance that night shows a man wearing black pants and a gray sweater walking onto the lawn, then putting ornaments in a shopping bag and walking off, Cormier said.

Cormier said that she woke up the next morning and saw that her Rudolph and Bumble, the Abominable Snowman, lawn displays had disappeared.

She didn't have security cameras, but her neighbor did and caught both thefts.

"He was treating my property as if he was buying from the store," Cormier said. "This is absolutely ridiculous."

The home was hit again after midnight on Dec. 7, the family said, with a thief stealing a polar bear display.

According to police, a formal complaint has been filed for petit larceny. As of Thursday, the suspect had not been caught, the family said.

Police couldn't confirm whether the suspect for the thefts is the same.

The woman said that nothing like this has ever happened to her home and that she didn't have the money to replace all the ornaments.

She added her three children, one of whom is a cancer survivor, were terribly sad that the ornaments were "just gone."

"My daughter was crying the next day," she said. "Those ornaments were her favorite thing."